2020 budget will have funds for implementation of new laws

All the new laws signed by President Duterte early this year would be funded from the P4.1-trillion budget for 2020, Sen. Sonny Angara said yesterday.

Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the laws – Republic Act 11194 or the Conservation of the Gabaldon School Buildings Act, RA 11230 or the Tulong Trabaho Act, RA 11459 or the Judges-at-Large Act and RA 11293 or the Philippine Innovation Act – would be useless unless they are given the appropriations they need.

He said that in the committee report on the 2020 General Appropriations Bill, the Senate provided P616 million for the implementation of the law, which would be lodged under the budget of the Department of Education.

For 2019, the DepEd received P2.06 billion for the implementation of RA 11194, but in the proposed 2020 national budget, the executive gave the agency only P383.9 million.

“These structures are considered part of Filipino heritage. They represent the roots of the public school system in the country. We must strive to preserve these buildings for the next generations to see and appreciate,” Angara said.

Around 3,000 Gabaldon school buildings were constructed across the country from 1907 to 1946 or during the US colonial era.

Angara added the 2020 national budget would also contain an allocation of P1 billion for the implementation of RA 11230 or the Tulong Trabaho Act, which was signed in February this year.

Under the law, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will provide free access to technical vocational education and training, particularly to out-of-school youth and the unemployed.

For RA 11459 or the Judges-at-Large act signed in August this year, Angara said funding would be provided for the creation of 50 new judges-at-large positions – 30 in the regional trial courts and 20 in the metropolitan trial courts.