Bicam keeps P1.3 billion budget cut for OVP
Credit to Author: Cecille Suerte Felipe| Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers have approved the bicameral conference committee report on the P6.532-trillion national budget for 2025, retaining the P1.3-billion funding cut in Vice President Sara Duterte’s office amid tensions between her and President Marcos.
The bicam report, which is expected to be ratified by both chambers of Congress, does not include any increase in the P733-million allocation for the Office of the Vice President (OVP), which disappointed Duterte’s allies.
Sen. Imee Marcos, a close friend of Duterte, and Sen. Bong Go, a longtime aide of Duterte’s father former president Rodrigo Duterte, skipped the ceremonial signing of the bicam report, while Sen. Ronald dela Rosa arrived late and left before the event ended. He refused to affix his signature to support the budget.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on finance, said the OVP did not ask for additional funding for 2025 after the P1.3 billion was slashed, and did not submit documents justifying any request to restore its original proposed outlay.
During the Senate’s budget hearing, Duterte said she was leaving the decision on the OVP’s budget to Congress.
For his part, House appropriations committee chairman Rep. Zaldy Co questioned the OVP’s overlapping projects, such as financial and burial assistance.
“These are duplications of national agencies’ programs. It’s not logical for the OVP to have separate social services,” Co said. “We considered the Senate’s concerns, particularly on the OVP budget.”
“We decided to maintain the P1.3-billion budget cut and not to further reduce the OVP’s travel funds. The slashed funds were allocated to agencies like DOH (Department of Health) and DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) with tested programs like AICS (Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation) and MAIFIP (Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients),” he added.
Dela Rosa admitted being frustrated for failure to secure an increase in the OVP budget.
“We can’t do anything if they don’t want to, just look at my eyes and how frustrated I am. Hopeless,” he said.
Both houses thumbed up the controversial Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) after senators were also given their fair share from the program. The Senate and the House of Representatives were allotted P5 billion and P21 billion, respectively.
The Senate was also allocated an increase of P1.1 billion, bringing to P13.930-billion allocations for 2025, while the House got an additional budget of P17.324 billion or a total of P33.670 billion for next year.
Senate President Francis Escudero and Speaker Martin Romualdez led the contingents from the Senate and House of Representatives during the ceremonial signing of the bicameral committee conference report held at the Manila Hotel.
Escudero vouched for the proposed 2025 national budget, saying this will help the administration of President Marcos.
“The logic here is simple: the President was elected by 31 million, so it is only right that Congress paves the way for him to fulfill his promises, vision and plans for the country according to the mandate given to him,” Escudero said in his speech during yesterday’s bicameral conference committee meeting at Manila Hotel.
Meanwhile, Congress did not allocate a budget for the subsidy of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) after its leadership declared a surplus of P89.9 billion that was supposed to be transferred to the national treasury.
In the House version of the budget, PhilHealth was allotted a P74.4-billion subsidy. This was reduced by the Senate in its version to P64.4 billion.
In the end, the PhilHealth government subsidy was totally deleted in the reconciled budget version because the state insurer failed to utilize its P600 billion in supposed “reserve funds.”
“We saw PhilHealth failed to use the subsidy provided by the government for 2024. PhilHealth now, if I’m not mistaken, has P600 billion in reserved funds. It’s just deposited in a bank and its income is less than the inflation. So the government is still at a loss. For now, PhilHealth has not been given a budget,” Poe said.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros opposed the zero subsidy to PhilHealth, saying it denies the Filipinos’ right to universal health and could be unconstitutional.
Hontiveros said it should be the government’s responsibility to give subsidy to PhilHealth for the payment of premiums of the so-called indirect contributors.
She also noted that PhilHealth’s alleged “reserve fund” cannot be used to pay the indirect contributors’ premium as the reserves are “emergency funds for future financial obligations.”
She cited the PhilHealth charter as well as the Sin Tax and the Universal Health Care (UHC) laws as mandating the need to subsidize PhilHealth and its universal health care program.
Sen. JV Ejercito, who sponsored the UHC law, said there could be questions of legalities in the move to totally remove PhilHealth’s government subsidy.
“They may have a P600-billion reserve fund, but there could be questions of legality here in removing the funding that is already earmarked in our laws,” Ejercito said.
Ejercito expressed concern at the budget cuts suffered by different agencies in the reconciled version of the proposed P6.352-trillion budget. “I am both worried and sad over the cuts, because it is always never enough,” he said.
The enactment of the 2025 budget is expected to take place before Christmas, according to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
In a text message, PCO Secretary Cesar Chavez said the signing of the spending bill into law was tentatively slated for Dec. 20 at 9 a.m.
The proposed budget has to be ratified by Congress before it is transmitted to Malacañang for President Marcos’ signature.
Marcos had certified the 2025 budget as urgent, exempting it from the rule that a bill can only be passed on final reading three days after it was approved on second reading.
Under the summarized version of the General Appropriations Bill, the DSWD has the biggest budget cut of P95.923 billion, followed by the Commission on Higher Education with P26.912 billion.
The budget of DOH was the third agency that suffered a budget slash of P25.795 billion, followed by the Department of Agriculture with P20 billion.
The Department of Labor and Employment also got a budget cut of P18.013 billion as well as the Department of Transportation with P16.683 billion.
While the 1987 Constitution provides that education must have the highest budget, the Department of Education budget was cut by P11.569 billion while the budget for state of universities and colleges was slashed by P7.233 billion.
The Department of Justice was cut by P1.603 billion as well as the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development by P582 million. The Department of Science and Technology also suffered a cut of P172.5 million.
Based on the summarized bicam report, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) got P1,1113,764.447, or a P288.648 billion increase.
Some senators, who refused to be quoted, claimed they were surprised to find out that the DPWH would get over a trillion-peso budget, the first time in the budget allocation.
Meanwhile, there has been notable increases in the budgets of the Department of National Defense with P8.857 billion, Department of Information and Communications Technology with P4.007 billion, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with P3.012 billion, Department of Tourism with P262.269 million and Department of Trade and Industry with P1.520 billion.
Other agencies receiving budget increases include the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with P162 million, Department of the Interior and Local Government with P131.4 million, Department of Migrant Workers with P245 million and the Department of Agrarian Reform with P108.6 million.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also received an increase of P415.222 million, the same as the Department of Finance with P6.818 million.
Funding for government oversight and planning agencies also with notable increases are the National Economic and Development Authority with P59.597 million, Presidential Communications Office with P18.254 million, Mindanao Development Authority with P339.327 million.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court received a boost of P448 million while the Commission on Audit had P200 million.
The approved budget also included an increase in the subsistence allowance for soldiers from P150 to P350 per day or P10,500 a month.
The proposed 2025 national budget includes P531.665 billion in unprogrammed funds that the government can use to address unexpected situations or prioritize important projects.
Under the national expenditure program, the unprogrammed funds were only P158.665 billion but Congress agreed to increase it by P373 billion.
Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel questioned last night the huge increase in the “unprogrammed appropriations” fund in the bicameral conference committee approved 2025 national budget.
Manuel made the manifestation after the majority-dominated House of Representatives ratified the 2025 national budget bicam report through a voice vote.
“We are also questioning the trend under the Marcos Jr. administration. The ballooning of unprogrammed appropriations which increased by triple,” Manuel said in his manifestation.
Unprogrammed funds are items in the budget with no money allocated yet. The funds are seen as the latest version of the pork barrel. Should the government generate the money, or should there be new sources for it, then it will get reallocated to the project. Funds impounded from PhilHealth and other government corporations will go to unprogrammed funds.
In the 2023 budget, the first one fully crafted under the Marcos administration, the executive proposed P588,162,480,000 in unprogrammed funds. Congress gave the executive branch P807,162,480,000. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Alexis Romero, Marc Jayson Cayabyab