The committee, led by House appropriations committee chair Joseph Emilio Abaya (Cavite) and Senate finance committee chair Franklin Drilon, is tasked to reconcile the respective versions of the budget bill of the House and the Senate. Drilon said the Senate ratified the new version Monday afternoon while the House of Representatives is scheduled to ratify it on Tuesday.
He said the Senate supported the proposed budget of the executive department as they are confident that the Aquino administration can deliver its intended services. "Next year, depending on how they execute the budget, the Congress can be again sympathetic or less sympathetic. But for this year, we will support the President's budget," he said.
An additional P300 to 400 million was allocated to the Senate while another P590 million was appropriated for the House of Representatives, restoring their respective budget in the 2010 General Appropriations Act (GAA). "The scenario is we are restoring the budget of both Houses at 95 percent, so it's five percent less than the original levels of GAA 2010, so it's merely restoration of budget for both Houses," added Abaya.
Aquino earlier slashed the congressional allocations as part of his administration's initiative to save on finances. Another P200 million was added to the budget of the Office of the Vice President as priority development assistance fund. Vice President Jejomar Binay's annual budget was earlier cut from P195 million to P177 million.
The amount for maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE) for state colleges and universities (SUCs) were restored to its 2010 appropriations. However, there will still be no budgetary allocation for capital outlay.
Among the biggest increases in the education sector is a realignment of P750 million to hire 5,000 new teachers.
According to Kabataan Representative Mong Palatino, the MOOE budget last year was P140 million. SUCs cried for P1.1 billion budgetary allocations for MOOE. The P83 million budget for the Truth Commission, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, has also been retained pending the appeal of the executive.
Budget for the purchase of contraceptives of the Department of Health meanwhile was slashed from P932 million to less than half of the total amount. At least P430 million goes to injectables, pills, condoms and other modern natural and artificial contraceptives.
But cuts were also made to the Office of the Health Secretary, whose allocations were reduced by P200 million, along with the budget of the Philippine National Police, which was reduced by P60 million.
The conditional cash transfer program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development amounting to P21.9 billion also passed through the bicameral committee without cuts.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad hopes that the budget bill will be signed by President Aquino on December 27. "The enrolled bill can be signed just after Christmas because of the printing of documents and review of the budget version that came out from the bicam. As we enter 2011, we are confident that for the first time in over a decade, a budget will be in place as the New Year comes," Drilon said For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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