Congress to approve P3-T 2016 budget next week

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives and the Senate are set to finally approve the proposed P3.002-trillion 2016 national budget next week before their month-long Christmas break starting on Dec. 19.

The approval of the budget would allow President Aquino to sign the measure before yearend, averting the reenactment of this year’s outlay, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said yesterday.

He said Congress has been passing the annual appropriations bill on time since 2011.

“The timely passage of the 2016 budget is most welcome and I commend my fellow lawmakers for making this possible,” he said.

“This budget should be used judiciously to improve the living conditions of Filipinos, especially the low-income earners and those living on the edge of poverty. We should demonstrate compassion for those who have less in life. No one should be left behind in the nation’s quest for economic development and social progress,” he added.

Romualdez, a member of the House committee on appropriations, pointed out that it is only proper that the bulk of the 2016 budget will go to education.

“We are only following the constitutional mandate that the state shall give priority to education and allow the youth to have easy access to quality education,” he stressed.

He said the Senate-House conference committee jointly chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, and his Senate counterpart, Loren Legarda, agreed on the final shape of next year’s budget in a meeting last Monday.

The committee restored P8 billion for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program earlier slashed by the Senate, he said.

On Monday, Ungab told his colleagues in the conference committee that the P8-billion restoration was the initiative of the House contingent and Sen. Ralph Recto.

Recto, who attended the meeting, said he did not agree with the decision of his Senate colleagues to reduce CCT funds, as this would have deprived at least 500,000 poor families of assistance under the CCT program.

Ungab said the conferees also agreed to allocate an additional P2.7 billion for senior citizens, P4.7 billion for veterans’ pension and P7 billion to augment funds for the planned four-year salary increase of the 1.5 million government personnel starting next year.

Recto inquired about his proposal to scrap the P30-billion risk guarantee fund for private corporations with government contracts.

 “There is P30 billion in such fund in the 2015 budget and another P30 billion for next year, for a total of P60 billion. But we do not know who are the private investors who will benefit from this huge amount of taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Legarda said the appropriation was retained in the proposed 2016 budget upon the insistence of the House conferees.

Ungab explained that the money is for “sovereign guarantees made by previous administrations that entered into contracts with private companies.”

“The government has to honor those contracts,” he said.