Ungab to seek budget for dialysis machines

REP. ISIDRO T. UNGAB, the first lawmaker from Davao City to serve as chairman of the powerful House of Representatives appropriation committee, is willing to look for money with which to procure dialysis machines to serve poor patients of Davao City for free. That is, if he receives a request from City Mayor Rody Duterte specifying how many dialysis machines are needed.
Ungab made the statement when told by Edge Davao about the growing number of Dabawenyos needing to undergo dialysis service due to kidney failure and related diseases.
Edge Davao earlier quoted Dr. Maria Theresa Bad-ang, a nephrologist, that the number of patients seeking dialysis intervention in the Davao Region increases an average of 10 percent every year.
Saying the situation was very alarming, Bad-ang bared that a total of 1,299 new patients seeking dialysis was recorded in Region 11 last year, with Davao City (through the Southern Philippines Medical Center or SPMC) having 428 patients.
Ungab’s committee earlier allotted billions of pesos for various forms of health services and equipment for the Davao Region through the Department of Health’s annual budget.
This is aside from the P14 billion the Ungab committee had set aside for the 2015 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways for Region 11, including the unprecedented P2.2 billion for various infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and vertical structures leading to identified tourism destination areas.
It may recalled that earlier, Ungab, as chairman of the powerful House committee on ways and means, also spearheaded the crafting and approval of the Sin Tax Law designed to raise funds for the country’s various health projects.
The Sin Tax was signed into law by President Noynoy Aquino on December 20, 2012.
“The target revenue for 2013 was P33 billion but the government collected P51 billion,” Ungab said in an earlier text message to Edge Davao.
“For 2014, the target was P45 billion but actual government collection as of October 2014 was already P69 billion,” The lawmaker from Calinan bared. AMA