House urged to restore P500-M cancer fund 

A PARTY-LIST lawmaker on Wednesday asked his peers to restore P500 million in cancer funds for 2023 that were cut from the national budget. 

“We will do everything in our power to make sure that the cancer assistance fund will be included in the final version of the 2023 national budget,” Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said in a statement.  

The House of Representatives deputy minority leader said state funding would ease treatment expenses of poor cancer patients.  

Cancer funding was excluded from next year’s proposed budget, Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a House hearing on Monday.  

She said the Budget department had turned down their request to restore the cancer assistance fund.  

The Department of Health (DoH) proposed the budget under the National Integrated Cancer Control Act of 2019.  

“I hope we can return the P500-million fund assistance for cancer patients to the DoH,” Ms. Dy said. — Matthew Carl L. Montecillo