By Argyll Geducos
The Philippines and the United States of America have signed a five-year Health Strategic Objective Agreement that will provide up to P42 billion in joint funding to strengthen the country’s efforts to detect, treat, and prevent HIV and tuberculosis (TB), while enhancing overall health security.
In a statement on Friday, July 31, the US Embassy in the Philippines said the agreement marks a new phase of bilateral health cooperation with the Philippine Department of Health.
Under the agreement, signed on July 22, the Philippine government has committed to invest more than P30 billion over the next five years to strengthen its health systems, while the US government intends to provide more than P11.8 billion, subject to funding from the US Congress.
The US Embassy said the joint investment will support shared efforts to combat infectious diseases before they spread internationally while helping build a more resilient and self-reliant Philippine health system.
“The Agreement will save American and Filipino lives, increase the resiliency of the Philippine health system through coordinated co-funding, and promote innovations to slow the spread of infectious diseases, like TB and HIV, that threaten both the United States and the Philippines,” the embassy said.
“The Agreement focuses on strengthening disease surveillance, detection, and outbreak response; integrating health service delivery across disease programs; and strengthening domestic capacity to finance and manage the health sector,” it added.
According to the US Embassy, the partnership builds on more than 60 years of US health assistance to the Philippines, which has supported programs aimed at saving lives and improving the country’s health system.
It added that the agreement recognizes the Philippine government’s significant co-investment in healthcare and underscores both countries’ shared commitment to advancing global health security.
The signing of the agreement by US Ambassador Lee Lipton coincided with the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Philippines, which the embassy described as a milestone under the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy.
The US Embassy said the initiative reflects the two countries’ continued partnership in strengthening the Philippines’ capacity to respond to infectious diseases and future public health threats.
