Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin (left), United States (US) President Donald Trump (PPAB, Facebook)

Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin says United States (US) President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw his country from the World Health Organization (WHO) is "understandable", but has dire implications for other nations including the Philippines.

Garin, a House deputy majority leader and a former Department of Health (DOH) secretary, gave her two cents on the newly-installed American leader's supposed penny-penching move in a statement Friday, Jan. 24.

“Napakaimportante nito sa Pilipinas kasi maraming usaping kalusugan at maraming programa sa kalusugan na kumukuha tayo ng funding support sa WHO," Garin said.

(This is very important to the Philippines because there are a lot of health issues and the WHO is the source of our funding support for numerous health programs.)

"And of course expected na ‘yung USAID ay bababa ang mga tinutulong nito sa mga bansa sa movement na ito,” she noted.

(And of course you can expect USAID to pull back on the assistance it gives to countries under this movement.)

Earlier, Republican Trump signed an executive order for the US to withdraw from WHO as one of his first acts since returning to the White House. Garin believes that Trump made the decision since his government intends to spend more for America's internal needs, which she says is “understandable".

“‘Yung sinasabing mishandling nung pandemic, walang perpektong response sa pandemic. Kaya sa totoo lang ang pananaw ko dyan, naghahanap lang ng rason ang America, ang katotohanan dyan, talagang nagtitipid sila because they want to spend more for their internal needs which is understandable sa panahong ito,” Garin noted.

(As to the supposed mishandling of the pandemic, there is no perfect response to a pandemic. That's why my view is that America is only looking for a reason, and that in truth they just want to save money because they want to spend more for their internal needs which is understandable at this time.)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the US government agency that leads international development and humanitarian assistance efforts to partner countries.

Meanwhile, the lady lawmaker expressed concern over the potential implications of such move on security, as she claimed that it could pave the way for countries like China or Russia—given their substantial economies—to assume leadership of the health organization. She said this would granting them access to sensitive information that might pose an international security threat.

“Kapag may pandemya threat ‘yan sa buong mundo so sila ang may initial access, that is what is going to happen,” she said.

(If there is a pandemic, it becomes a global threat and they will gain initial access to it, that is what is going to happen.)

At any rate, Garin raised the need to reform the WHO costs, saying that unnecessary expenses should be reduced, such as the "frequent travels" and "wine and dine", to allocate more funds to health-related matters.