Raise DOH budget for HPV vaccination – Cancer Coalition of the PH

The Cancer Coalition of the Philippines (CCPh) has urgently appealed to lawmakers to reject budgets cuts that would hamstring the Department of Health’s (DOH) cervical cancer prevention program and compromise the health of millions of women and girls in the country.

Instead, the CCPh urges lawmakers to increase the DOH’s budget for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and protect more Filipinas from cervical cancer.

“Increase the budget allocated for HPV vaccination. Eliminating cervical cancer is worth the budget increase. Let us not compromise our capacity as a nation to reduce avoidable deaths from this preventable cancer. We should not put at risk the lives of these unserved, vulnerable young girls. We should ACT NOW, rather than regret the losses from our inaction later,” said Carmen Auste, Vice President of CCPh.

The DOH currently provides free anti-cervical cancer (also known as HPV) vaccines to girls aged 9 to 14, giving them the necessary protection against the that causes nearly all types of cervical cancer.

In 2024, the DOH aims to cover and protect at least 3 out of 7 unvaccinated girls within the ideal age bracket—however, due to a reduced budget under the current version of the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), only 1 out of 7 Filipinas who still need to be vaccinated will be able to receive at least a single dose of the vaccine.

Notably, the present budget allocation covers only 750,000 doses (2024), which is significantly lower compared to the previous 1 million doses (2023) and 1.4 million doses (2022).

The DOH is requesting that lawmakers provide at least an additional PhP400 million for the HPV immunization program, particularly as the current HPV vaccine allocation does not cover Region II (Cagayan Valley) and MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), hampering the goal of nationwide coverage.

Doses vs. deaths

The HPV Information Centre noted that the Philippines has a population of 39.6 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer, which is the second most prevalent cancer and the second leading cause of death among Filipinas.

Eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem