Senate, House budgets increased by P3 B each

The Senate and House of Representatives will each get a P3-billion increase in their annual budget for this year.

In the 2020 national budget signed by President Duterte last week, the Senate and House were given P9.48 billion and P15.81 billion, respectively.

The Senate’s budget for this year showed a P3.22-billion increase from its budget of P6.26 billion in the previous year, based on a report of the bicameral conference committee obtained by The STAR.

The 2020 General Appropriations Act mirrored the bicam report as the President did not veto any item.

This is the largest increase in the House’s budget under the Duterte administration. In 2018, it increased by only P1.7 billion, or to P5.83 billion from P4.1 billion in 2017.

This also means that each senator gets a budget of P396 million.

In the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2020 submitted to Congress, the executive branch proposed a budget of P7.49 billion for the Senate.

But during deliberations, senators padded their budget for this year by P2 billion and increased it to P9.48 billion.

The House, on the other hand, received a P3.07-billion increase in its annual budget, from P12.74 billion in 2019.

The executive branch proposed only P14 billion for the House in the NEP, but this amount was increased by P1.8 billion to P15.81 billion during deliberations.

The over P3 billion in combined increases in the budgets of the Senate and House from the NEP is one of the realignments made during the budget deliberations and the bicam.

Senators and congressmen hold Salary Grade 31, which range between P257,809 and P295,191, in the same salary level as Cabinet secretaries and other officials with Cabinet rank.

Officials of the Senate, House, Court of Appeals, Senate Electoral Tribunal and House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal are among the highest paid bureaucrats in the annual report of the Commission on Audit on total compensation, which includes allowances and other emoluments.

Also among the highest paid are senators, congressmen and Supreme Court (SC) justices sitting in the two tribunals which handle election protests against lawmakers, and SC members themselves who comprise the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.