President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. wants quality health services to be accessible to all Filipinos, particularly those living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
For this reason, the Marcos administration ensures that the Department of Health (DOH) would be able to deliver healthcare services without any interruption.
In a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said the DOH has received a PHP267.8 billion budget for this year, the biggest in its history, under the current administration.
“Technically, ‘yung sinasabi niyang ‘wag kayong mag-alala sa kalusugan, nilalagyan niya talaga ng budget (Technically, he allotted budget for health when he told the public not to worry about their health),” he said.
He noted that Marcos has legacy projects such as cancer and children’s centers with funds to ensure their construction.
“PBBM is putting money where his mouth his. Kapag sinabi niyang dagdagan ng pondo ang kalusugan, dinagdagan niya ang pondo (He increased the fund for healthcare services when he said he would),” he added.
Following the signing of the 2025 national budget in December last year, Marcos instructed Herbosa to guarantee the provision of health benefit packages to all members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) despite the state insurer’s zero government subsidy.
Coming out of the pandemic, the DOH encountered challenges in nutrition, immunization, maternal mortality, tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, mental health, cancer and digitization of the health system.
To combat these, Herbosa said the agency focused its efforts on health promotion, disease prevention, and acute and emergency care.
The DOH opened 42 Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services (BUCAS) Centers to bring the best urgent care and ambulatory services to the poorest families.
Twenty of the centers are in Luzon, eight are in Visayas and 14 are in Mindanao. They are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Herbosa said family and community medicine doctors were assigned in the centers.
Free basic healthcare services are provided through the 83 Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) mobile clinics with complete equipment such as digital X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, hematology analyzer for blood tests, binocular microscope, ophthalmoscope for eye tests, lab-grade refrigerator and telemedicine equipment
Several hospitals are also up for expansion, Herbosa said, citing as an example the multi-specialty center built in Clark, Pampanga.
“We are expanding many hospitals: heart centers, specialty centers sa iba’t ibang parte ng Pilipinas, utos ni President ‘yan (nationwide, that’s the President’s order). Gagayahin ‘yung ating bituka hospitals dyan sa North Triangle, may lung, kidney, heart and children’s (We will replicate those hospitals in the North Triangle — lung, kidney, heart and children’s hospitals). Una ‘yung sa (The first is in) Clark,” he said. (PNA)
