Pass budget bill, GMA appeals to Congress

President Arroyo appealed anew to Congress to pass the 2007 budget, saying the people need the measure that would help boost the government’s programs for social services and rehabilitation of provinces destroyed by the spate of typhoons late last year.

The President also defended the government’s feeding program for elementary school students as part of addressing the country’s hunger problems.

"If Congress will pass the budget, this will contribute a lot to the programs for livelihood, education, health, housing and nutrition, including the provision of one kilo of rice for families experiencing hunger," Mrs. Arroyo said at the start of a televised roundtable discussion on poverty alleviation.

"Aside from these, we will be able to expedite and expand the rehabilitation of those devastated by typhoons, flooding, volcanic eruptions and other calamities during the past year," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo made the appeal anew to lawmakers after failing to approve the 2007 national budget due to a disagreement over the P4.5-billion allotment for the feeding program of the Department of Education (DepEd).

The Senate had realigned about P4.5 billion of the P4.7-billion elementary school feeding fund under the DepEd to the construction of new school buildings and hiring of additional teachers to ease the classroom and teacher shortage.

Senators also cut P1.5 billion from a P1.7-billion appropriation for a similar program in pre-schools and allotted it for school building construction and teacher recruitment.

Senators feared the elementary school and pre-school feeding funds, amounting to more than P6 billion, could be used or could be skimmed for election purposes next year.

Since Jan. 1, the government has been operating on the 2005 re-enacted budget of P907.56 billion, the same allocation for 2006 since Congress also failed to pass a new budget law last year.

Mrs. Arroyo said the most important thing to do this year is to make the people feel the social payback from the difficult fiscal reforms adopted by the government.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there are ongoing efforts to convince Congress to pass the budget this month.

"There are back-channel talks and we are hopeful that the 2007 budget will still be enacted. We are not saying this is over," he said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had said the bulk of the proposed P1.126 trillion budget for 2007 is for social services while P10 billion is set aside to finance the rehabilitation of calamity-stricken areas in the country.

In a related development, DBM Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. assured funding for the May elections, allaying fears made by Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos that the polls might not push through because of the failure of Congress to approve the 2007 budget.

"There can be other ways of funding the elections but none however is more superior than passing a brand-new national budget," Andaya said.