MALACAÑANG yesterday submitted to the House of Representatives the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2022, the final money measure for the Duterte administration which has been drawing heavy flak for its response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Officials from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) handed over to Speaker Lord Allan Velasco the proposed 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is so far the most expensive one in the country’s history.
With the theme, “Sustaining the Legacy of Real Change for Future Generations,” the proposed P5.024 trillion national budget is equivalent to 22.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic pProduct (GDP) and is higher by 11.5 percent than this year’s national budget.
“It is the last full-year financial program crafted by my administration — a crucial document because it is key to our success in the battle against COVID-19 in the coming year,” President Duterte said in his budget message to Congress. “I have less than a year from now to complete my term and accomplish my task.”
The President urged the 18th Congress “to enable us to safeguard our people from future impacts of the pandemic and to assure them that we will sustain the legacy of real change for future generations.”
He said the next budget will fund the procurement and distribution of more COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots for fully vaccinated individuals.
“For even as we continue to address the continuing challenges of the pandemic, especially with the emergence of new and more vicious variants of the virus, we will pave the way to gain back the health and strength of our people, and the vigor of our economy,” Duterte said.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a leader of the opposition bloc, noted that the President articulated on and underscored “hope” instead of “fulfillment.”
The President said: “We hope for a better life, a better future, and a better world for ourselves and for our children. We hope, at the end of each grueling experience, for the worst to be over. We hope for an end for COVID-19, that we survive the pandemic and triumph over its impact. We hope to rise from every fall and failure, and to recover from every setback.”
“While hope is ennobling, it must not be a cover-up for failure,” Lagman said.
The Speaker vowed to carefully scrutinize the proposed budget, saying “it is incumbent upon Congress to swiftly pass a national budget that will not only serve as an instrument for development, but also as a powerful tool to decisively defeat COVID-19 and rebuild people’s lives and livelihoods.”
Rep. Eric Yap (PL, ACT-CIS), chair of the House committee on appropriations, said he and other lawmakers will meet with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Thursday because the House wants the President to certify the measure as urgent so it can expedite its passage before Congress goes on recess in the first week of October.
“This is the most expensive budget in the country’s history but with the shortest time for deliberations,” Yap told reporters, adding that the committee plans to allot two weeks only for hearings so the measure can be approved on second and third reading by September 30, right before the House goes on a month-long break.
“A week before the start of the November session, we should have given the Senate a copy of the GAB to allow them to start reviewing it,” he said.
Duterte said the proposed budget for 2022 is the “key” to the country’s success in the fight against COVID-19, in safeguarding the country from future pandemics, and in re-energizing and ramping up the economy.
The DBM, which is headed by its officer-in-charge Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda, said the NEP provides the necessary funding requirements “to support the country’s resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic, to sustain the trajectory of economic growth, and to continue the legacy of infrastructure development.”
Some four percent of next year’s budget, or about P241 billion, was allocated for COVID-19 response, including P45.4 billion under “unprogrammed appropriations” to cover the COVID-19 booster shots of 93.798 million fully-vaccinated Filipinos.
The government will continuously support the implementation of the National Health Insurance Program, with a budgetary support of P80.0 billion, to subsidize the health insurance premium of 13.2 million indigent families and 7.3 million senior citizens.
The roll out of the Prevention, Detection, Isolation, Treatment and Reintegration (PDITR) strategy will be prioritized through the procurement of 758,700 complete sets of personal protective equipment worth P819 million and 11 million GeneXpert cartridges worth P5.1 billion. A P17 billion fund will also be allotted for the continuous hiring and deployment of health service professionals through the human resources for health program.
To further strengthen the capacity of the healthcare sector and improve medical infrastructure, P19.6 billion is allocated for the construction and upgrading of health facilities and purchase of medical equipment and ambulances under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program.
Of this amount, P1.4 billion will be used to cover the requirements for newly established government hospitals, while P106 million will be set aside to ensure the efficient health facility referral system of the One Hospital command center.
The government will also continuously invest in medical research and development (R&D) by allocating P1.3 billion to support the COVID-19 R&D efforts of the Department of Science and Technology which includes P983 million for the establishment of the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines and P140.0 million for the conduct of biosurveillance and immune-biosurveillance of COVID-19 variants under the Philippine Genomic Information and Resource Hub. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Raymond Africa
