Speech by Hon. Iris Marie D. Montes on the WHO Global TB Report 2025

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, esteemed colleagues, I rise today with a deep sense of urgency and a heavier sense of responsibility. The World Health Organization's Global Tuberculosis Report 2025, released just last week, confronts us with a painful and deniable truth. The Philippines has consistently remained among the top five countries with the highest tuberculosis burden, holding the third spot for the past several years.

Let that sink in, third in the world, year after year. A nation of resilience, talent, and promise held back by an ancient, curable disease.

With 500 new infections for every 100,000 Filipinos, our incidence rate ranks among the highest globally. Worldwide, tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest infectious killers, taking 1.25 million lives in 2024 and afflicting 10.8 million people. And yet, Mr. Speaker, our country alone accounted for nearly 7% of all TB cases all over the world.

In 2024, 739,000 Filipinos fell ill, 38,000 died. That is more than 100 Filipino lives lost every single day to a disease that is preventable, treatable, and curable. And this despite the passage of Republic Act No. 10767, the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Plan Act, nearly a decade ago.

Madam Speaker, tuberculosis is not merely a public health concern. It is a national emergency. It demands our attention, our leadership, and our political will now.

Though the Department of Health has long declared TB a priority, the data tells a harsher story, one of gaps, delays, and inequities.

Case detection remains dangerously low. Too many are diagnosed too late or never at all. Only 43% of estimated TB cases are diagnosed and reported. Private sector underreporting is staggering. 94% of all reports come only from the public sector.

Contact tracing is inconsistent, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged communities. Integration with HIV, diabetes, nutrition, and other syndemic conditions remains weak. Patients with rifampicin-resistant and multidrug-resistant TB face long, toxic, and often unbearable treatment regimens, and they receive little psychosocial support.

Access to rapid molecular diagnostics, such as GeneXpert, remains uneven, while next-generation tools like AI-assisted X-rays, advanced sequencing, and urine-based diagnostics remain largely out of reach for ordinary Filipinos.

Madam Speaker, we cannot fight the tuberculosis with outdated tools and fragmented systems. We must invest in modern diagnostics. We must expand laboratory capacity. We must guarantee that every Filipino, regardless of region, income, or circumstance, has equal access to quality care.

Strict enforcement of RA No. 11332 or the mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases is not optional. Every unreported case is a missed chance to stop transmission. Every failure to notify is a failure to protect our people.

Madam Speaker, we must confront a difficult question. Are we financing the whole continuum of TB care according to the true burden of disease? Do we provide full coverage for screening, diagnostics, treatment, nutrition support, and follow-up? Do we protect patients, especially those with drug-resistant TB, from catastrophic health expenses? Do we support patients so that they can adhere to treatment, stay employed, and remain economically stable?

We call on PhilHealth to urgently expand its benefit packages, especially for drug-resistant TB, where treatment is complex, prolonged, and costly.

Madam Speaker, esteemed colleagues, our role in this crisis is unmistakable. We must exercise oversight with both rigor and compassion. We must ensure that program implementation is transparent and measurable. Funds reach the front lines, the barangay health stations, the rural clinics, the overworked and under-resourced hospitals.

Patient support systems are strengthened. Service delivery networks function seamlessly. Financing mechanisms are sustainable and equitable. The rights of TB patients are upheld because dignity is non-negotiable.

Let us not allow bureaucracy to cost lives. Let us not allow delays to widen the gap between sickness and healing.

Madam Speaker, if we are serious about winning the war against tuberculosis, then we must strengthen convergence, integrating health, education, governance, and community engagement. Protect financing for TB and ensure it is used effectively. Strengthen surveillance, improve case notification, and demand protocol compliance. Expand access through multi-sectoral engagement and incentives or private sector reporting. Support TB patients with nutrition, counseling, and guaranteed access to diagnostics and medicines. Fight the stigma that keeps our kababayans from seeking care.

Tuberculosis affects our farmers, our fisherfolks, our workers, our women and children, our elderly, and most painfully, the poorest among us. It steals years of productivity. It tears apart families. It deepens cycles of poverty.

This is not just a health issue. It is an issue of equity, of dignity, of justice.

Madam Speaker, let this Congress be remembered as one that turned the tide against tuberculosis. Not with rhetorics, but with solutions. Not with hesitation, but with heart. Not with excuse, but with action. Let us act with urgency, with evidence, and with empathy.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, esteemed colleague.