PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is eyeing to use the funds from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) in reviving the Department of Health’s Botika ng Bayan program, an official said Wednesday.
Arnell Ignacio, head of Pagcor’s community relations and service department, said Duterte wanted to spend the P5 billion funds recently turned over to the government for the revival of the Botika ng Bayan.
“When we turned over the P5 billion, his (Duterte’s) original plan is for the resurrection of the Botika ng Bayan,” Ignacio said.
“So we [are] maybe doing the same project of GMA (then President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) before. The Botika ng Bayan will be all over the Philippines,” he added.
The Botika ng Bayan started in 2005. The program aimed to have at least one Botika ng Bayan outlet in each city or municipality, where the community can purchase medicines.
On Tuesday, the President said he is also planning to use the Pagcor funds in establishing another mega drug rehabilitation center in the Visayas. (Sunnex)