BY RAYMOND AFRICA and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
THE Senate yesterday approved its version of the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024 on second and third reading.
Voting 21 in favor, no negative votes, and with one abstention, the Senate passed House Bill No. 8980 or the 2024 General Appropriations Bill which was approved by the lower chamber before Congress took a Halloween break last September 30.
Only 22 senators were present during yesterday’s plenary session. Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Pia Cayetano were absent, while Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III abstained from voting.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the final version of the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) may be signed by President Marcos Jr. before he leaves for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN)-Japan Commemorative Summit by the middle of December.
“I was talking to the liaison officer. Na-approve na kasi ‘yung budget. They are going to the (bicameral) conference committee by December 1st, and so there is enough time bago umalis si Presidente (I talked with the liaison officer. The budget has been approved. They are going to the bicameral conference committee by December 1st, and so there is enough time before the President leaves),” Diokno said in a briefing after the sectoral meeting on the country’s economic prospects for 2024 in Malacañang.
Marcos is set to visit Japan from December 16 to 18.
The proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024 is 9.5 percent higher than the national budget of 2023.
NO NEGATIVE VOTES
Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva said: “We already closed the period of committee and individual amendments. With the consent of the body, I move to approve on second reading House Bill No. 8980. I so move, Mr. President.”
No member of the Senate objected to Villanueva’s motion, prompting Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to approve the motion. Villanueva then asked the Senate secretary to read the letter of urgent certification issued by the President on September 20, 2023 for the immediate passage of the budget bill and which allowed the measure to be approved on third reading the same day after it was passed on second reading.
Regular bills are traditionally approved on third reading by Congress three days after the measure is passed on second reading.
Before the budget bill was passed on third and final reading, Pimentel manifested on the floor “my continuing objection to the use of a presidential certification for the budget.”
“I do not see any emergency or calamity right before us which will be addressed by this certification. So, with this issue, Mr. President, I am abstaining,’ Pimentel said.
Zubiri named Sen. Juan Edgardo, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, to lead the bicameral committee of the Senate, while Senators Loren Legarda, Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Cynthia Villar, Ronald dela Rosa, Sherwin Gatchalian, Christopher Go, Risa Hontiveros, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Mark Villar, Francis Tolentino, Joseph Victor Ejercito, and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada were named as members.
CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS
Angara did not mention the controversial confidential fund allocations when he said that the committee adopted individual amendments introduced by several senators.
But Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, in a press conference before the start of their session, said several civilian agencies which asked for confidential funds were not given any in the budget measure.
She, however, was not able to give details, saying she has yet to sum up the confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) given to certain agencies.
She said agencies without the mandate on national defense and public safety were the ones stripped of confidential funds, but portions of the CFs that were removed were realigned to their respective monthly operating and other expenses (MOOEs) or were included in the agencies’ line budget items which are subject to regular auditing of the Commission on Audit.
“Sorry hindi ko nasuma lahat pero siyempre ‘yung significant amounts ay mula sa Office of the Vice President (OVP), Department of Education (DepEd) and at least three or more other agencies (I’m sorry that I have not summed them up but of course, significant amounts came from the Office of the Vice President, Department of Education, and at least three or more agencies),” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros said she hopes that the Senate will stand by its decision not to allocate CIFs to agencies that are not involved in national defense and public safety during the bicameral discussions with their lawmaker counterparts from the House.
Angara said the departments of national defense, interior and local government family, agriculture, education, social welfare, health, housing, transportation, information and technology, trade and industry, science and technology, tourism, foreign affairs, labor, and budget and management got significant increases in their budgets for their respective programs, activities, and plans.
He added agencies like the Energy Regulatory Commission, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and local government units were also given additional funds.
He did not provide specific amounts for the allocations.