Section 30Sec./Art. 30

Health Promotion. - The DOH, as the overall steward for health care, shall strengthen national efforts in providing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to health development with emphasis on scaling up health promotion and preventive care.The DOH shall transform its existing Healthy Promotion and Communication Service into a full-fledged Bureau, to be named as the Health Promotion Bureau, to improve health literacy and mainstream health promotion and protection.

The Health Promotion Bureau shall formulate a framework strategy for health promotion which shall serve as the basis for DOH programs in increasing health literacy with focus on reducing non-communicable diseases, implement population-wide health promotion programs and activities across social determinants of health, exercise policy coordination across government instrumentalities to ensure the attainment of the framework strategy and its programs, and promote and provide technical support to local research and development programs and projects: Provided, That within two (2) years from the effectivity of this Act, the cost of implementing health promotion programs shall be at least one percent (1%) of the DOHs total budget appropriations.

The schools under the supervision of the Department of Education (DepEd) are hereby designated as healthy settings for the purpose of this Act, The DepEd, in coordination with DOH, shall formulate programs and modules on health literacy and rights to be integrated into the existing school curricula to intensify the fight against the spread of communicable diseases and increase in prevalence of non-communicable diseases through, among others, the effective promotion of healthy lifestyle, physical activity, proper nutrition, and prevention of smoking and alcohol consumption among students. The program shall likewise acquaint the students on their entitlements, privileges and responsibilities under this Act.

The DOH and DepEd shall submit annual reports on the health promotion and literacy programs they have respectively implemented, including an assessment of the impact thereof, to the President of the Philippines, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Furthermore, the LGUs are also directed to enact stricter ordinances that strengthen and broaden existing health policies, the laws to the contrary notwithstanding, and implement effective programs that promote health literacy and healthy lifestyle among their constituencies to advance population health and individual wellbeing, reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases and their risk factors, particularly tobacco and alcohol use, lower the incidence of new infectious diseases, address mental health issues and improve health indicators. An annual report on the policies adopted and programs undertaken and an assessment of the impact thereof shall be submitted by the LGUs to the DILG.