The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill requiring all provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays to appropriate no less than 15 percent of their national tax allotment share for health services.
Voting 224 affirmative, 0 negative and 0 abstention, lawmakers passed House Bill 10392, authored by House Committee on Health Chairman and Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan.
Under the proposal, local government units (LGUs) will appropriate in their annual budget no less than 15 percent of their annual national tax allotment for health services, including provision of free medicines to indigent patients.
Tan said that along with local development initiatives, the provision of quality, accessible, and relevant health services is enormously important, especially in the face of the lingering Covid-19 pandemic.
She said her House Bill 10392 seeks to amend Section 287 of the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 to ensure the appropriation of at least 15 percent of annual national tax allotment for health services in all LGUs and they must undertake necessary action to prepare for the greater role and responsibilities of providing health services that they are expected to assume in the context of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling.
The proposed appropriation shall be on top of whatever is allotted for health services under the existing development projects as provided under the LGC and the Special Health Fund (SHF), a component of the Universal Health Care Act (UHC).
“The pandemic has underscored the important lesson that LGUs must be at the front lines of UHC implementation and every local chief executive must recognize that health is a strategic concern that must be immediately and adequately addressed because it is a prerequisite to social development,”said Tan.
Earlier, the lower chamber also approved HB 10296 that raised the IRA share of LGUs from 40 percent to 50 percent.
HB 10296 seeks to intensify local government participation in national development by increasing the share of local government units in national taxes.