Senate targets OK of ‘24 budget this month

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BY RAYMOND AFRICA and WENDELL VIGILIA

LAWMAKERS will resume regular sessions today and buckle down to work after a five-week break, with senators targeting to complete plenary discussions and approval of the proposed P5.768 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for next year by the end of the month.

The House of Representatives transmitted its version of the 2024 national budget bill last Saturday when Congress convened for a special session to hear the message of Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who was in the country from November 3 to 4 for an official visit.

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The office of Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, said the panel is set to sponsor the budget bill on Tuesday and is eyeing to start floor discussions by Wednesday.

The Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau said committee hearings are “traditionally” not allowed during the period of plenary debates for the proposed national budget unless there are very important measures to be tackled.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has said that the upper chamber is aiming to approve the 2024 GAB by November 27 to give more time for the bicameral conference committee to iron out the differing provisions of the two versions of the budget measure.

The Senate and the House want the proposed 2024 national budget bill ready for President Marcos Jr.’s signature by the end of the year and before Congress goes on break for the holidays.

Speaker Martin Romualdez said the House will prioritize the ratification of the 2024 budget bill and the passage of 11 priority bills identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) and by President Marcos Jr. in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July.

“The budget is the lifeblood of our nation’s progress and development. The House is fully dedicated to the task at hand, ensuring that the national budget is ratified and enacted on time to guarantee the continuity of essential services, support economic growth, and promote the well-being of our citizens,” he said.

The House has realigned P194.5 billion in the Malacañang-submitted spending bill to benefit the country’s security, inflation protection, and food security, including P1.23 billion in confidential funds from civilian government offices, including the Office of the Vice President (OVP), to security agencies amid escalating tensions with China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

The biggest realignments under the House-approved version of the GAB went to the Department of Agriculture (DA), which has received an augmentation of P64.5 billion, and the Department of Health (DOH), which was given P43.9 billion.

Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said he will ask the Committee on Finance to schedule debates on the proposed budget of big government agencies during the early part of the plenary discussions so the minority bloc can better scrutinize them.

In an interview with radio dzBB, Pimentel noted the previous practice of scheduling plenary debates for critical agencies late at night or during the wee hours of the morning, which he complained made it difficult for minority senators to study them thoroughly.

“Puwede ko sabihin sa earlier part ng deliberations doon ang malalaking ahensiya, sa dulo na ang other executive offices. Huwag i-cramming, sobrang dami (I would like to request that the deliberations for big government agencies be done during the earlier part of the deliberations, while the smaller agencies be scheduled during the latter part of the discussions),” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said since the minority bloc consists only of him and Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, it would be expected that they will lose their stamina during the marathon deliberations, thus leaving them exhausted to properly scrutinize the proposed budget.

Pimentel said there is no need to rush the plenary discussions.

“Actually, ako ay makiki-usap sa majority kasi dalawa lang kami, na kung puwedeng i-phasing ito para naman mahimay, may time kami at quality din ang aming intervention. Otherwise, kung 12 hours mo na akong pinagbabantay, mapapansin mo na rin ang aking pagbabantay, pagod na. Ako ay makiki-usap bukas kay chairman Angara na i-phasing naman. Malapit na rin tayo maging senior citizen, wala nang fastbreak (I will request the majority because we are only two [in the minority], that the deliberations be done by phase to give more time [to us] to scrutinize the proposed budget measure and for us to have quality intervention. If we will be guarding the proposed budget for 12 hours, you can expect that we will be exhausted…I will ask [Committee on Finance] chairman [Juan Edgardo] Angara to do it in phasing. I am nearing the senior citizen age, we should all go slow),” he added.

Among others, Pimentel said he would reiterate his position that the Office of the President (OP) should not be given intelligence funds since it is not directly involved in criminal law enforcement and national security matters.

He said the President can get intelligence information from agencies like the PNP, AFP, National Bureau of Investigation, and National Intelligence and Coordinating Agency, among others.

He said the OP can be given confidential funds, but it should be a reasonable amount. He did not specify what would be the reasonable amount.

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“Ang OP ay napaka-busy na opisina at wala na silang dapat agent na nagko-collect ng intelligence work, hindi siya intelligence gathering.  Intelligence fund ng Presidente, tanggalin. Sa confidential funds, yan ang flexibility fund pero with reason naman, dapat reasonable ang halaga (The OP is a very busy office and it and it has no agents to conduct intelligence works. It is not an intelligence gathering [agency]. So, the intelligence funds of the President should be removed. On the OP’s confidential funds, it can be its flexibility funds, but it should be of reasonable amount),” Pimentel said.

The OP has been allocated P4.56 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) — P2.25 billion in confidential funds and P2.3 billion in intelligence funds.

He said President Marcos can do a “patriotic act” by lowering down the OP’s confidential funds for next year to unburden the government’s debt deficit. He said other agencies which will be given CIFs should do the same.

He added agencies which are asking for confidential funds should submit to the Senate their respective financial and operations plan so that senators can have an idea how they intend to spend the money.

LEDAC BILLS

Romualdez said the House will start tackling 11 legislative priority bills identified by the President and the LEDAC when sessions resume today.

These priority measures include the proposed creation of the Department of Water Resources and Services and a Water Regulatory Commission, Tatak-Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) bill, and the Blue Economy law, all of which were already approved by the respective mother committees and are waiting for comments of the House Committee on Appropriations.

The lower house will also start floor discussions on the proposed amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or Republic Act (RA) No. 9136, the proposed Government Procurement Reform Act, and the proposed amendments to the Cooperative Code, which are all being tackled in the committee technical working group (TWG) level.

Also eyed for plenary discussions are the proposed Budget Reforms Modernization, the National Defense Act, the New Government Auditing Code, and the Philippine Defense Industry Development Act, which are all under committee deliberations.

The House also seeks to jumpstart discussions on the proposed Motor Vehicle User’s Charge/Road User’s Tax.

Of the 17 SONA priority measures for 2023, one has been enacted into law, one has been ratified by the bicameral conference committee, and eight have been approved by the House on third and final reading.

The Automatic Income Classification Act for Local Government Units has already become law, and the Ease of Paying Taxes bill has successfully completed the bicameral conference process. Notable bills like the Excise Tax on Single-Use Plastics and the VAT on Digital Services have passed the third reading.

Out of the 57 LEDAC priority measures, eight have successfully become law, including the SIM Registration Act, postponement of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in 2022, and the Agrarian Reform Debts Condonation; while two – the Ease of Paying Taxes and Amendment to the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)/Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code – have been ratified by the bicameral conference committee.

A remarkable 35 bills have passed the third reading, encompassing significant initiatives like the Virology Institute of the Philippines, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA) (Package 4), and the National Disease Prevention Management Authority, among others.

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