Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay put the national government to task on Saturday for allegedly failing to provide funds to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) which provides healthcare to thousands of indigent Filipinos.

Ironically, Binay noted that the administration has earmarked P1.2 billion for the rehabilitation of the Ayuntamiento building in Intramuros, for which a grant had already been given by the government of Spain.

Binay was reacting to reports that the state-funded PGH has been surviving on the charity of legislators and may soon lose its electricity and water supplies owing to its failure to settle bills amounting to millions of pesos.

“Why is this happening to our national government hospital that provides much-needed health-care for hundreds of thousands of indigent Filipinos each year? Why hasn’t the Arroyo administration see it fit to allot the P1.2 billion for PGH instead of providing funds for a project already funded by the Spanish government?” Binay asked.

According to reports, the PGH was recently given disconnection notices by electricity distributor Meralco for unpaid bills and by Maynilad for unpaid water services bills.

“It is such a shame that PGH survives on charity and the ‘tender mercies’ of the Arroyo administration, which has no qualms about spending millions, even billions of taxpayers’ money on foreign trips and other caprices,” Binay said.

Binay also cited the Commission on Audit’s observation that the PGH needs an annual budget of at least P3-billion to maintain its ISO status.

The opposition leader said the government has shown again that its priorities are misplaced. “I am appalled at the utter insensitiveness of this administration. It does not even make the least effort to avoid doing anything that would betray or insult the Filipinos’ intelligence and sensibilities. Mrs. Arroyo and her minions do not seem to have the word ‘delicadeza’ in their vocabulary,” Binay said.

He said the Arroyo administration has shown that it is predisposed to wasting taxpayers’ money on such items as foreign trips that do not bring real benefits to the people.

“Its priorities are far removed from the realities faced by the ordinary Filipinos, and the cancellation of purchasing the jet plane would not end the furor over her indecent travel expenses and questionable increase in her family’s wealth,” Binay said.