Senate ratifies bicam report on P2.2-T budget for 2014

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed P2.264.7-trillion national budget for 2014.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the House of Representatives will ratify the committee report on Monday or Tuesday.

They have enough time to approve the final version of the budget before Congress goes on its month-long Christmas recess next weekend, he added.

The final copy of the bicameral conference committee report will be sent to President Aquino for signing by next week.

The ratification came a day after the House and the Senate reconciled the conflicting provisions of their versions of the budget.

One of the highlights of the 2014 General Appropriations Bill was the inclusion of over P100 billion for the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the various calamity-devastated areas.

It consists of P20 billion from the programmed fund of the 2014 national budget and P80 billion from the unprogrammed fund.

Based on what was agreed in Congress, the rehabilitation and reconstruction fund would go to the areas that the following calamities had affected: Typhoons Yolanda, Santi, Labuyo, Vinta, Odette, Pablo and Sendong; the 7.2 magnitude earthquake; and the Zamboanga City siege.

Congress also approved a supplemental budget of P14.6 billion to augment the calamity fund of 2013.

Another P12 billion represents savings from the calamity-related funds in the 2013 national budget.

Senate President Franklin Drilon is confident the 2014 national budget contains enough funds for the relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation work of the government.

“What we should watch out for is the absorptive capacity of the line agencies to be able to disburse substantial sums of the budget because of the circumstances,” he said.

“There must be a conscious effort to be able to dispose of this because this could affect our GDP (gross domestic product) targets. About 20 percent of GDP would pertain to public spending. If we do not spend this immediately then it can affect our GDP targets.” 

Drilon said a major part of public spending would go to reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Line agencies tasked with reconstruction and rehabilitation must “hit the ground running” at the start of 2014, he added.

Drilon said Congress and the executive branch must work on building up the government’s financial capacity to respond to future Yolanda-like calamities.

“But having said that, is Yolanda now the norm that we have to guard against? In other words, is this now the norm of our environment?” he said.                         

“So we must see how we can respond to this. I don’t think our present government finances can sustain another calamity like Yolanda. We must think out of the box how our government finances can continuously respond to calamities like Yolanda. I don’t think Yolanda is the last that we have seen.”

P304 M slashed from DOH budget

The Senate has removed P304 million from the budget of the Department of Health (DOH)   intended for buying contraceptives and family planning devices.

Deputy Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he initiated the reduction of the DOH budget because of his opposition to the use of devices known to be “bad for women.”

During the debates on the 2014 national budget last November, Sotto said some P825 million was included in the DOH’s proposed budget for family planning commodities and supplies.

Based on that proposed budget, P309.6 million would go to the purchase of combined oral contraceptives; P196.23 million for pills; P164 million for injectable contraceptives; P106.7 million for implants; P32.6 million for intrauterine devices (IUD), and P12.37 million for natural family planning methods.

Sotto said that proposed budget for family planning supplies and commodities for 2014 was significantly higher than its previous years’ budgets.

A significant portion of the P304 million was realigned to the newly created quick response fund of the DOH, he added.

Sotto said the fund was provided for the relief and rehabilitation of areas that recent calamities had affected.

“The funds we were worried about were realigned to Quick Response Funds,” he said. “As long as it’s allocated for commodities such as IUDs, it’s a case of grave concern.”  

Sotto said he was certain that the DOH would still implement the reproductive health program regardless of how much it would get for this purpose.

“It’s a safe budget,” he said.