THE House of Representatives last night approved on third and final reading Malacañang’s proposed P5.268 trillion national budget for 2023 after more than a month of marathon committee and plenary deliberations.
Congressmen voted 289-3 with no abstention to approve House Bill No. 488, or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which if enacted, will be the first national budget of President Marcos Jr.’s administration.
The House, at around 7:00 p.m., terminated the period of sponsorship and debates on the GAB and later opened the period of individual amendments and adopted a motion to create a small committee that would accept or reject all proposed amendments.
The small panel is composed of Rep. Elizalde Co (PL, Ako Bicol), chair of the House committee on appropriations; Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, senior vice chair of the appropriations panel; majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, and minority leader Marcelino Libanan.
The House, presided by Speaker Martin Romualdez, then closed the period of amendments subject to the revisions that would be approved by the small committee.
Lawmakers then voted to approve the GAB on second reading at around 7:57 p.m. before proceeding to vote on it on third and final reading nominally.
The President on Monday night certified the passage of the GAB as urgent, a move that allowed congressmen to approve the money measure on third and final reading immediately after voting on it for passage on second reading.
The Chief Executive, in certifying the budget, invoked Article 6, Section 26, and subsection 2 of the 1987 Constitution, which authorizes the President to “certify to the necessity of the immediate enactment of House Bill (No.) 4488.”
During the plenary debates on the Office of the President’s proposed P9.03 billion budget for 2023, Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel of the Makabayan bloc noted that over half of the amount will go to confidential and intelligence funds.
He said the amount would go a long way in augmenting funds for social services, noting that P4.5 billion is equivalent to the salary increase of 460,000 teachers, which is one of Marcos’ campaign promises.
Manuel said the amount can also be used to increase the salaries of 368,000 non-teaching personnel; construction and repair of 6,800 classrooms; acquisition of 31,200 sets of school seats; hiring of 9,300 school nurses; and can also be used to fund 1.6 million additional beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) educational assistance to 440,000 recipients.
“These are the reasons why this representation moves to realign these confidential and intelligence funds to fund the needed social services,” said Manuel, whose motion can only be acted upon by the House during the period of amendments.
Manuel also scrutinized the history of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) funding from various government agencies, noting that for 2023, the NTF-ELCAC will have P1.392 billion spread out across agencies on top of its P10 billion budget for Barangay Development Program.
The secretariat of the NTF-ELCAC, which has a proposed budget of at least P100 million for 2023, is under the OP.
Manuel also estimated that NTF-ELCAC will gain access to around P903 million worth of funding for social services lodged in agencies such as the DSWD, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).
Budget sponsor Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco assured the public that the OP’s confidential and intelligence funds will be lawfully spent.
“Rest assured that the funding will be used to facilitate delivery of social services such as the ones cited by our dear colleague, including the budget for the NTF-ELCAC,” Tiangco said.
Tiangco vowed that the OP would comply with Joint Circular 2015-01 on the use of confidential and intelligence funds and assured the submission of the physical and financial plan required under the same circular.
Asked by Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela), also of the Makabahan bloc, how the Executive exactly intends to spend the funds, Tiangco explained that the OP could not reveal any information due to its confidential nature, even those that have already been spent in previous fiscal years.
Tiangco however said JC 2015-01 has been issued to also ensure that confidential and intelligence funds are properly used by government agencies.
‘GHOST SCHOLARS’
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday questioned the supposed “ghost scholars” under the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) free education program.
During CHED’s budget briefing, Hontiveros said her office received complaints that almost 400 students have not received their education subsidy, and there were also reports that students who have already graduated continue to get tuition reimbursements.
“So kung hindi ang mga bata, sino ang totoong nagka-cash in? Seryosong alegasyon ito na kailangan imbestigahan ng CHED (If it’s not the students, who have been claiming the cash? This is a serious allegation that CHED should investigate),” Hontiveros said.
She said even the Commission on Audit, in its annual audit report, has noted the inefficiencies, lack of oversight, and lack of control mechanisms of CHED in administering the Free Higher Education and Tertiary Scholarships.
“Sana naman ay walang kumikita dito dahil stealing from our children would be stealing from our future (I hope that nobody is benefiting from this because stealing from our children would be stealing from our future),” she added.
Hontiveros also checked with CHED chairman Prospero de Vera the veracity of reports that its Student Loan Program, which has a P1 billion funding, has yet to implemented even if this was passed into law in 2017.
De Vera said the commission has started implementing the loan program four years ago “but there have been very few, if any, applications in the student loan fund.”
He likewise said an agreement among CHED, UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for the implementation of the student loan did not work out as expected.
De Vera said the money has recently been returned to the National Treasury, including interests earned in the amount of P1.5 million.
Hontiveros said the “defective” MOA among CHED, UniFAST and DBP could have benefitted around 16,500 students by lending them P60,000 for their tuition at the height of the pandemic.
She also said that the P1 billion was “parked” at the DBP for about four to five years before it was reverted to the National Treasury last August. — With Raymond Africa
