📷: Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go inaugurated the newly built Super Health Center in Barangay Camalig, City of Meycauayan, Bulacan on June 9, 2023.
Health Workers PartyList is gravely concerned about the report that at least 300 out of 878 Super Health Centers are non-operational. Out of 1,099 super health centers slated for construction between 2021 and 2024, 319 projects, valued at P3 billion, are either unfinished or non-functional.
This deprives the people of much-needed health services and puts to waste billions of public funds.
We are appalled that the Department of Health is washing its hands off the issue. DOH blames the local government units. But the DOH has been requesting billions of funds from Congress annually for the construction, repair and equipping of Super Health Centers since 2022.
As part of the Health Facilities Enhancement Program under the DOH budget, these Super Health Centers including the completion/repair/upgrading/equipping were appropriated P15 billion from 2022 to 2025 based on the collated data from the annual General Appropriations Act. For 2026, the DOH is requesting for another P2.218 billion for the “New Construction of Bagong Pilipinas Health Centers/Rural Health Units” and “Completion/Equipping of Super Health Centers”.
Marcos Jr could not feign innocence of the irregularities. Marcos Jr signs the annual General Appropriations Act which contained the allotment for super health centers, flood control projects, and other questionable infrastructure projects. He has been promoting the Super Health Centers. During Marcos Jr’s 2024 State of the Nation’s Address, he specifically mentioned the construction of Super Health Centers as part of his accomplishments. The thousands of Super Health Centers slated to be built already surpassed the administration’s target of 406 Super Health Centers until 2028 (President’s Report to the People 2023-2024).
Opportunistic politicians use these Super Health Centers, which were funded from people’s taxes, for political patronage. Politicians like Senator Bong Go who claimed he proposed the establishment of Super Health Centers in 2021, took advantage of these Super Health Centers, functional or not, to gain political mileage.
We call on the health workers and the people to continue the fight against corruption. Let us add our voices to the growing protests of the people against the systemic corruption. Corruption kills. We should not allow the corrupt to continue to deceive the people and plunder the people’s money.#
