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Increase DOH budget: Sen. Richard Gordon pushes for an increase in the budget of the Department of Health (DOH) and its attached agencies during the continuation of the marathon session on the proposed 2022 national budget Wednesday, November 17, 2021. Gordon lamented the fact that other government agencies have bigger budgets than the health department during a pandemic. “We don’t seem to have our priorities right. What is more important to us? Building new roads and building flood control projects? We could reduce the budget there and add it to the DOH so it could have more budget for testing, hospital beds and (hiring of) doctors. I would increase the budget of the DOH because we have a shortage in doctors and nurses. There’s a lack of bed capacity in hospitals. We could reduce the bigger budgets of some agencies and increase the DOH budget,” Gordon stressed. Sen. Pia Cayetano, vice chairperson of the Committee on Finance and chairperson of the Committee on Health and Demography, agreed with Gordon and said she would be happy to accept proposals from him on the matter. She said Finance Committee chairman Sen. Sonny Angara as well as Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto and Senate President Vicente Sotto III indicated their openness to the idea of increasing the budget of DOH and its attached agencies. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)