The Arroyo government plans to spend P273.1 billion for better education and health services on the final leg of its tenure.

Under the proposed P1.541 trillion national budget for next year, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said at least P235.2 will be used to improve the quality of the country’s education, or P13 billion more than its budget for the sector this year.

Public health services, on the other hand, will be given a boost of P37.9 billion based on the 2010 national budget proposal submitted by Malacañang to Congress.

In the 2010 budget bill, Andaya said the education sector gets the lion’s share, or almost half of the P480 billion earmarked for social services.

Of the education sector outlay, the Department of Education will receive P179 billion for its 2010 budget.

Another P21 billion will go bankroll the operations of 112 state universities and colleges while another P3.15 billion will be obtained by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Andaya said the schoolbuilding fund of the DepEd, booked as a separate entry in the national budget, will also receive P2 billion next year. An allocation of P5.8 billion will be spent for the construction and repair of classrooms next year.

The Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Science High School and the Science Education Institute will get P404.6 million and P419.3 million, respectively, next year.

In the area of public health services, Andaya said the Department of Health will get P28.5 billion under the 2010 budget proposal.

Included in the health department’s budget is the P3.2-billion allocation to improve hospital facilities and P1 billion to immunize 2.6 million children against a host of diseases. The government has also set aside P1.16 billion to fight tuberculosis and P1.43 billion for family health, to include family planning.

“We are also putting up more Botika ng Barangays, as these have been called the grassroots detachments in the drive to bring cheaper medicines to more people, and it will cost P1 billion to stock them up next year, “ Andaya said.

Next to the DoH, Andaya said four Quezon City-based specialty hospitals — the Lung, Kidney, Heart and Children centers — and the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, which are technically government corporations, get a combined subsidy of P805 million.

“Again, let me clarify that this represents government subsidy or budgetary support only, so what they will actually spend next year is far more bigger,” Andaya said.

Around P5 billion will be allocated for “premium payment subsidy” for poor families covered by PhilHealth insurance. The government aims to place 4.67 million indigent households, or about a quarter of the population, under medicare protection, Andaya said.