Recto urges Duterte to sign medical scholarship bill into law

President Rodrigo Duterte should sign the Medical Scholarship Bill into law next month so its funding can still be included in next year’s national budget, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Sunday.

The senator is also proposing that the scholarship be named after former Senator and Health Secretary Juan Flavier, the former barrio doctor who pushed for the Doctors to the Barrios.

“But before we attach his great name to a great program, let us first make sure that the law’s maiden year of implementation is not marked by a budget cut,” Recto said.

The senator was referring to Malacañang’s proposal to halve this year’s P167 million financial subsidy to 1,789 medical scholars to P83.5 million next year, the amount in the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) proposed 2021 national budget.

Worse, according to CHED, this year’s P167 million financial stipend to medical students in eight state universities has been impounded “for later release,” Recto said.

The schools are Bicol University, Cagayan State University, Mariano Marcos State University, Mindanao State University, University of Northern Philippines, UP Manila College of Medicine, UP Manila School of Health Sciences, and Western Visayas State University.

“So embargoed ngayon, cut bukas,” Recto said.

The CHED scholarship program in 8 SUCs is but one of the tracks the Congress–approved bill creates in producing doctors whose services are needed in the provinces, of which only 25 out of 81 have enough public doctors, Recto said.

Another program is run by the Department of Health (DOH), which had 1,142 scholars in various medical schools last year.

Under their contract, they shall “repay” their state-granted tuition and allowances by serving in rural areas after passing the board examinations.

“So more or less, the CHED and DOH tracks have a combined 3,000 beneficiaries. Dagdagan pa natin ito by including financially-challenged but academically excelling medicine students in private schools,” he said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)