00:00Even though the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the 2025 National Budget,
00:06there are some laws that question this provision.
00:10In particular, the provision of zero subsidy to PhilHealth and doubling of the funds of the House of Representatives.
00:17Mav Gonzalez was on the scene.
00:18The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the 6.352 trillion Pesos 2025 National Budget that was approved by the House of Representatives.
00:32But some Senators are against the decision to make zero subsidy to PhilHealth in the next year.
00:38PhilHealth's fund should be for health, that's why PhilHealth.
00:44Lessons learned, we should invest more in health.
00:48Subsidy from the national government may still be needed to implement necessary reforms and improvements in its benefit packages.
00:58Let's not make zero budget in the end.
01:00The poor patients will be the ones who will be in trouble.
01:04Senator Grace Poe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said PhilHealth has enough reserve funds.
01:10We believe that the 600 billion of PhilHealth is for them to be able to utilize.
01:18They are not definitely destitutes.
01:20They have the funding for it.
01:23And if they also show their capability to utilize those funds next year, definitely it will be a different scenario once we evaluate the progress that they have made.
01:37Senate President Cheese Escudero is also against it.
01:40For now, it's 600 billion.
01:43Will we add another 74 billion?
01:46It's not like we're adding more benefits.
01:50In truth, it's in the Charter of PhilHealth that they can spend their funds for the universal coverage of PhilHealth.
01:58We are still waiting for the reaction of PhilHealth regarding this.
02:01If there are any shortcomings, Senator Coco Pimentel requested the increase of the Congress' funds after going to the Bicameral Conference Committee.
02:10There is an additional P1 billion in the budget of the Senate while P17.3 billion is in the Chamber.
02:16It's bigger than the original estimated P16.3 billion.
02:20Why didn't we just release it to the plenary and discuss it?
02:25Why does this have to happen in the Bicameral Conference Committee, Mr. President,
02:30when the budget of the Chamber has almost doubled?
02:37But we have to be transparent.
02:39The Senate President said that the budget is not perfect but there are so many things that should be funded in such a small space.
02:46Some are angry, some are smiling.
02:48But even so, the Congress' job is to choose among the things that can be funded and which should be prioritized.
02:55Everything is important.
02:57For GMA Integrated News, Mav Gonzalez, for Tutok, 24 hours.
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