Press Release - Transcript of Sen. Pia Cayetano's statements Plenary debates - DOH & attached agencies

Opening Statement

Mr. President, the total new appropriation of the Department of Health and its attached agencies and corporations under the Senate Committee Report is P277,995,747,000. The breakdown is as follows:

For the Department of Health - Office of the Secretary, P277,425,590,000
For the National Nutrition Council - P519,873,000
For the Philippine National AIDS Council - P50,284,000
For the Lung Center of the Philippines - P50,185,000
National Kidney and Transplant Institute - P1,986,886,000
For the Philippine Children's Medical Center - P1,774,216,000
For the Philippine Heart Center - P2,652,920,000
For the Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care - P176,726,000
For Philippine Health Insurance Corporation - P68,719,010,000

Furthermore, this representation would like to thank the Chairman, Sen. Grace Poe, for accepting our amendments. The Office of Secretary, the development of RITM's anti-venom production, and upgrading of their technology, equipment and facilities to boost production efforts, and the procurement of rabies vaccines to address the projected animal bites expected this year. For the Lung Center of the Philippines, in line with my tobacco control advocacy, the Smoking Cessation Program or the QUITLine, for the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the construction of phase 1 of the new 8-storey outpatient department (OPD) building. For the Philippine Children's Medical Center, the renovation of existing and construction of new PCMC buildings, and for the Philippine Heart Center, various programs like the training of advanced heart failure teams, subsidy of heart transplantation for charity patients, and the procurement of heart transplant equipment and mechanical circulatory support devices, replacing 10-year-old machines.

These are all part of our commitments to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into our national development plan and policies, specifically SDG 3, ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing at all ages.

Mr President, before we proceed with the interpellation, I would just like to point out that in 2012, we passed the Sin Tax Reform Act, RA 10351, and then again, another Sin