BACOLOD CITY, Aug. 11 (PIA) -- An official of the the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) urged the public to lobby with congressmen and politicians for the passage of a bill that would boost health research in the country.
The Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Act pending in Congress would provide a P300-million budget per year for health research, the minimum amount needed by health researches on a yearly basis, according to Dr. Jaime Montoya, Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the DOST.
The DOST is holding a three-day conference as part of its 5th PNHRS Week activities at L'Fisher Hotel here.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lulu Bravo, Executive Director of the National Institutes of Health of the University of the Philippines-Manila expressed hope that the PNHRS Act will be passed in this 15th congress. She urged congressmen and senators for its passage because this will have an impact not just on scientists but on the Filipino people, including researches on disaster management and cheaper medicines.
Montoya revealed that the DOST is working with a P5-billion budget which will be increased to almost P10-billion under the Aquino administration.
"Based on the limited resources, DOST screens and prioritizes researches to maximize utilization of its fund, with no duplication and all those conducting researches are focused on areas with high impact," Montoya said.
According to Montoya the PNHRS was created to integrate all of these researches and the government agencies which have budget on research will agree on where to spend their money based on the national unified health research agenda made from 2006 to 2010.
A new national unified health research agenda is being created for 2011 to 2016 based on consultations from the region up to the national level.
The 5th PNHRS Week with the theme, "Convergence in Divergence: Innovations for Better Health" is being held August 10-12 at the L'Fisher Hotel where Focused Group Discussions on different topics are being conducted. Research papers were being presented by the different stakeholders.
source: PIA