House okays P3.35 trillion budget

MANILA — With two months and a half before the end of the fiscal year, the House of Representatives gave its final approval to the proposed P3.35 trillion budget for 2017.

A total of 243 lawmakers voted in favor of the budget, while five registered their opposition.

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman abstained from voting, citing his reservations on the "validity" of the approval based on President Rodrigo Duterte's message to Congress for the budget's immediate enactment.

"No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days, and printed copies thereof in its final form had been distributed to its Members three days before its passage, except when the President certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to meet a public calamity and emergency," Lagman said.

"While the distribution of copies of the printed bill in its final form is dispensed with, when there is a valid certification of urgency, there must at least be a showing that the third reading copy is complete with the incorporation of the amendments to the GAB (General Appropriations Bill) by the small committee. No such showing has been made so far on the final version for third reading," he added.

Davao Representative Karlo Nograles, appropriations committee chairman, said the approval of the budget on third and final reading "puts us one step closer to our quest for a lasting and meaningful change."

"The P3.35 trillion budget will effectuate the Duterte administration's reform agenda and ensure its success in the war against drugs, criminality and poverty," he said.

Nograles said the House will await the approval of the Senate version and its signing into law by December.

The proposed appropriation is 11.6 percent higher than the current year's budget of P3.002 trillion. It is 20.4 percent of the GDP compared to this year's 20.1 percent of GDP according to the Department of Budget and Management.

TOP 10 AGENCIES

The top 10 agencies in terms of budgetary allocations are: Department of Education (DepEd), P567.5 billion; Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), P458.6 billion; Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), P150 billion; Department of National Defense (DND), P134.5 billion; Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), P129.9 billion; Department of Health (DOH), P94 billion; State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), P58.8 billion; Department of Transportation (DOTr), P55.4 billion; Department of Agriculture (DA), P45.2 billion; and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), P41.7 billion.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno had said the 2017 national budget is "A Budget for Real Change," focused on programs and projects that will achieve the Duterte administration's 10-point socioeconomic development agenda.

Earlier in the day, Davao Representative Karlo Nograles, appropriations committee chairman, said the House has decided to restore the budget cuts made in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) against State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) and on government hospitals nationwide.

The proposed NEP slashed the budget of 65 hospitals run by the Department of Health (DOH) and 34 SUCs nationwide.

InterAksyon.com

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