Lawmakers seal approval of Duterte's penultimate budget
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE 1:03 p.m., Dec. 9) — Legislators sealed their approval of the Duterte administration’s penultimate budget next year on Wednesday, putting it on course to a timely passage critical to ensure new projects for pandemic recovery will immediately get funded.
House and Senate budget leaders told reporters in a briefing their respective contingents have approved the P4.5-trillion proposed spending plan, up 9.9% from this year’s P4.1 trillion.
Ratification of the bill will proceed on the afternoon at both chambers, after which the measure will be ready for transmittal to President Rodrigo Duterte for signing. He has 30 days to do so before the bill lapses into law on its own.
The approval marks another fulfilled promise from Duterte’s allies in Congress to expedite the budget’s passage and make sure similar delays from 2019, which dealt catastrophic damage to the economy, are avoided.
For the economic managers, the 2021 budget nearing enactment arm them with another fiscal stimulus tool. The budget is devised to work in tandem with the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) and Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) bills in buoying government ability to push the economy out of recession.
FIST, which aims to reduce the burden of bad loans from banks, had been similarly approved by the bicameral conference committee composed of select House and Senate members. CREATE that reduces corporate taxes is also set to be finalized.
Among key components of the latest budget version is a P70-billion allocation for the procurement of coronavirus vaccines, if and when they become available next year. But the allocation is under the “unprogrammed fund” which means appropriations can only be tapped if and when revenue targets are exceeded or through proceeds from foreign loans.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III earlier said the government needs P73 billion to immunize 60 million Filipinos, the funding for which will be loaned out of multilateral agencies.
Calamity fund now 'over P30 billion'
Meanwhile, P23 billion had been allocated for the rehabilitation of calamity-stricken areas hit by succeeding typhoons from October to November. The fund was sourced from “unimplementable” (sic) projects next year because of the pandemic, according to Senate finance committee chair Sonny Angara and House appropriations committee chair Eric Yap.
Those funds for calamity repair form part of the P30.8 billion in calamity fund augmented by lawmakers following recent typhoons, Angara said in a direct message to Philstar.com.
As mandated by the Constitution, the education sector, which includes the education department, Commission of Higher Education, state colleges and universities as well as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, got the largest chunk of the budget with P708.18 billion. This is followed by the public works department with P694.82 billion.
The interior department got P247.51 billion. The P16-billion budget for the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Conflict was retained.
Health department budget up amid pandemic
The health department and Philippine Health Insurance Corp., which lead the government’s response to the pandemic, was granted P287.5 billion, 61.8% up from this year’s P177.7 billion that includes early allocations from COVID-19 response, according to Angara's office. But the allocation included the P70 billion in unprogrammed funds for vaccines which cannot be touched without additional revenues or borrowings.
With the 2021 budget now out of the way, Angara said Congress will now focus on extending the effectivity of Bayanihan to Recover as One, also known as Bayanihan II as well as the 2020 budget until next year so that unused funds from them may still be spent.
The Bayanihan law adds P165.5 billion from the existing P4.1-trillion outlay, P140 billion of which may be deployed using existing funds, while the balance of P25.5 billion is on standby for additional fund source. As of November 30, P93.32 billion of that fund had been released to agencies to spend.
Congress has until December 18 to pass measures to keep the 2020 budget and stimulus funds alive. — Xave Gregorio with reports from Edu Punay/The STAR and Mae Anne Los Baños/News5
Editor's Note: This article was amended to reflect changes on the health agencies' budget as released by Senator Angara's office after the briefing.
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