The Philippine General Hospital is one of the biggest government hospitals in the country that serves nearly half a million patients every year.
The premier government hospital posted an infographic about this on Facebook on September 2 following another cut in the University of the Philippines’ budget for 2023.
UP-PGH’s proposed budget this year is P6.302 billion.
However, the medical institution will have an P893 million budget cut and will only receive P5.412 billion next year, according to the P5.268 trillion proposed 2023 national budget that the Department of Budget and Management submitted to the House of Representatives last August.
Overall, the UP system was also only allotted half of its proposed budget.
UP proposed a P44 billion funding to cover all maintenance, services, infrastructure projects and other expenditures, including the PGH. However, the DBM only allotted P22.295 billion in the National Expenditure Program that was submitted to the plenary for deliberations.
Following this development, the Facebook page of UP-PGH posted an infographic that highlighted the hospital is part of the UP system.
The information was expressed in a trivia format.
“Alam niyo ba? Ang Philippine General Hospital ay bahagi ng University of the Philippines. Ang UP-PGH ay nagsisilbing teaching hospital ng UP Manila,” the post reads.
UP-PGH also posted the services it is offering and how many patients it accommodates.
“Ito rin ang pinakamalaki at pinakamodernong tertiary hospital sa bansa na naglilingkod sa halos kalahating milyong pasyente kada taon, nagsasanay sa mga health students at workers at nagsisilbing referral at training center sa iba pang government hospitals and facilities,” it said.
PGH’s post has since garnered 1,500 reactions, 61 comments and 625 shares on the platform.
In the comments section, several Filipinos expressed gratitude to UP-PGH and its medical workers for their services to the people.
Some Filipinos, meanwhile, called on the government to increase UP-PGH’s budget instead of slashing it.
“Dapat madagdagan ang pondo ng UP-PGH instead of SLICING the budget for 2023,” one Facebook user said.
“Maganda talaga sa PGH, maalaga ang mga doctors and nurses, sila ang nag aalaga sa bunso kung special since birth, hanggang ngayon sila pa din kaakibat ko sa pangangailangan medical ng anak ko, kaya karapat dapat lng na dagdagan pa ang budget ng PGH,” another Facebook user commented.
What will be affected by the UP budget cut?
In a separate statement, UP shared a breakdown of its estimated expenses that the initial P44 billion allotment will cover for the fiscal year of 2023.
The following allocations were presented by the University to the Regional Development Council – National Capital Region Social Development Committee on February 15, 2022:
- Personnel Services (PS) – P19,527,596,000
- Maintenance and Other Operating Exp (MOOE) – 9,788,449,000
- Capital Outlay (CO) / Equipment Outlay (EO)- 14,833,195,000
- TOTAL – P44,149,240,000
However, the total allocation under the NEP 2023 was only P22 billion.
UP also gave a breakdown of this as follows:
- Personnel Services (PS -P14,226,520,000
- MOOE – 7,602,067,000
- CO /EO – 25,000,000
- TOTAL – P21,853,587,000
Moreover, UP also stated that the UP-PGH was supposed to account for P1.959 billion in the original P44.149 proposed funding.
The premier stated university’s budget was previously gutted by P1.3 billion for the fiscal year of 2022.
UP submitted a P35.6 billion budget to the government in 2021. However, it was only provided with P20.1 billion, which is about a 44% slash from the proposed amount.
READ: ‘PGH is under UP’: Concerns raised as UP budget gets gutted