Latest in Department of HealthPublic health expert Dr. Tony Leachon is urging Health Secretary Edwin Mercado to implement a real-time medicine tracking and deployment system, coordinate with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to audit the quality of procured drugs, and publicly demand accountability from officials…
The Department of Health (DOH) and the National Nutrition Council (NNC) are pushing for higher excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and for food manufacturers to reformulate their products to reduce sugar content, while making clear they are not targeting sugar farmers or seeking to eliminate…
Sweet tooth is not something a child is born with. It is trained by the food habits of the family they grow up in, and parents who give young children sugary food repeatedly are programming their children’s brains to crave sweetness, Health Undersecretary Dr. Albert Domingo said Wednesday. Domingo…
The rise in overweight and obesity among Filipino children aged 5 to 10 is more worrying than the adult figures, with the rate tripling from around 5% in 2003 to 16% in 2025, Health Undersecretary Dr. Albert Domingo said Wednesday. Domingo made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program…
The Philippines has been getting heavier every year since 1993, with 43.1% of Filipino adults now classified as overweight or obese, approximately 25 million people out of an estimated 60 million adults, in a trend that Health Undersecretary Dr. Albert Domingo said Wednesday has shown no sign of…
The Marcos administration’s Department of Health has set concrete health outcome targets it must achieve by 2028: lower stunting rates among Filipino children, higher immunization rates, reduced tuberculosis cases, contained HIV infections, and a shift toward healthier lifestyles to address rising…
Health Secretary Edwin Mercado said the Department of Health (DOH) will create a separate dedicated cluster for hospital operations, removing it from the Center for Health Development regional offices that currently oversee both hospitals and primary care programs. Mercado stressed this necessary…
Local government units can now use the Special Health Fund—the pool of PhilHealth payments they receive for health services—to hire doctors, nurses, and other medical workers, a critical new provision that Health Secretary Edwin Mercado said Saturday will help address the country’s chronic…
The Marcos administration has built more than 100 specialty centers for cardiac, cancer, stroke, trauma, burn, and brain care—all co-located inside existing hospitals rather than built as standalone facilities—expanding access to specialized medical care across the country without requiring the…
The Department of Health (DOH) will use telemedicine and roving health teams rather than fixed clinics to bring healthcare to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, acknowledging that brick-and-mortar health facilities are not always feasible in island communities and remote barangays…
Every municipality in the Philippines now has a doctor, ending decades of doctorless towns that left millions of rural Filipinos without access to basic medical care, Health Undersecretary Gloria Balboa said Saturday. Balboa made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program Special on…
The Philippines faces a unique triple burden of disease that requires the health system to simultaneously address lifestyle illnesses, lingering infectious diseases, and modern-society conditions including mental health problems, newly appointed Health Secretary Edwin Mercado said Saturday.…
Newly appointed Health Secretary Edwin Mercado revealed Saturday that the Department of Health (DOH) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will no longer operate as two separate agencies but will merge their roadmaps under a single Unified National Agenda for Health, or UNA…
The Marcos administration has set a clear and ambitious target: by the end of the President’s term in 2028, no Filipino family should go hungry, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said Saturday. Gatchalian made the statement in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on July 25…
Tuberculosis cases in the Philippines are rebounding after years of decline, with multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains on the rise—a trend the country’s top health insurer attributes largely to patients failing to complete their treatment despite medicines being provided for…
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