Senate OKS P2-trillion budget for 2013

THE SENATE last night approved on third and final reading a P2-trillion budget for 2013, about 10 percent higher than this year’s P1.816-trillion allocation.

The vote was 14-1 with Sen. Joker Arroyo casting the lone negative vote.

Senate finance chair Franklin Drilon said P698.4 billion has been earmarked for social services, including the controversial Conditional Cash Transfer program for indigent families with a budget of P44.25 billion. The program targets 3.8 million poor families.

The PhilHealth program got P12.6 billion for the enrolment of 5.2 million poor families.

Enrolment of families belonging to the second lowest economic quintile was propounded as the main reason for the urgent approval of the so-called sin tax bill, a pending measure raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol products.

Drilon said the target P40 billion in incremental revenues from the sin tax measure has already been incorporated in the 2013 budget and would be used for the premiums of families that would be enrolled in the PhilHealth program.

Of the P2-trillion budget, Drilon said P510.9 billion would go to economic services and P333.9 billion for debt service.

The Department of Education (DepEd) would have the biggest budget with P292.7 billion, followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways with P152.9 billion and the Department of National Defense with P121.6 billion.

The Department of Interior and Local Government will get P121.1 billion; Department of Agriculture, P74.1 billion; Department of Health, P56.8 billion; Department of Social Welfare and Development, P56.2 billion; Department of Transportation and Communication, P37.1 billion; Department of Finance, P33.2 billion; Department of Environment and Natural Resources, P23.7 billion.

Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano delivered a speech prior to the 2013 budget’s approval, noting that DepEd received the highest increase in allocation yet the additional 22.6 percent does not translate into higher salaries for public school teachers.

Cayetano also relayed his concern over the plan to implement the K+12 program, which makes kindergarten compulsary and adds two more years to high school, despite the apparently unpreparedness of the DepEd.