Senate to start budget deliberations next week

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate will start next week its plenary deliberations on the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 so it can be approved before the end of this month or the first week of December.

Senate finance committee chairman Francis Escudero said he would sponsor the committee report of the budget bill on Tuesday.

Escudero has asked the budget department to justify its last-minute changes to the budget bill, citing the P43.6 billion in realignments that were submitted to the House of Representatives.

He said he wants to know the “specific details” about these changes.

“We will get down to the specifics of the errata since this has not been discussed during the budget deliberation. We were not made aware of the corrections and we are interested to know from where to where are these funds moving,” he said.

Escudero said he would not describe the realignments, which is 1.65 percent of the total budget, as questionable.

Among the items included in the errata submitted by the Department of Budget and Management to the House of Representatives was an additional P8 billion to the Contingent Fund, which was meant for the requirements of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

The Department of Social Welfare and Development would get an additional P7.9 billion; Department of Transportation and Communications, P7.7 billion; Department of Health, P4.3 billion; International Commitment Fund, P3.2 billion for the Asia Pacific Economic Conference meetings in 2015; Department of Finance, P1.6 billion for the modernization of the Bureau of Customs; Commission on Audit, P1.1 billion; and Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund, P1.1 billion.

Escudero said the bulk of the P8 billion for the BBL was taken from the Pension and Gratuity Fund, which he said was over appropriated by P6.8 billion.

He said the committee is reviewing the errata and getting its details before the proposed National Expenditure Program goes to the Senate plenary next week.

Escudero said the amendments in the House version of the budget bill amounted to only P19.8 billion or a mere .7 percent of the total proposal.