The Senate is expecting the submission of the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP) on Monday, August 23, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.
“Not yet. Monday daw. [The Department of Budget and Management] will see me on Monday,” Sotto said in a text message to reporters when asked if the Executive Department has already submitted the 2020 budget to the chamber.
Malacañang will propose a P5.024-trillion budget for 2022 to Congress, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon suggested to conduct marathon hearings on the 2022 national budget as he warned of a possible reenacted budget following Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado’s resignation.
He said the Congress has “very little” time to scrutinize the proposed budget due to the limitations brought about by the pandemic as well as some of the lawmakers’ preparations for the 2022 national and local elections.
Under Article VII, Section 22 of the 1987 Constitution, “[t]he President shall submit to the Congress within thirty days from the opening of every regular session, as the basis of the general appropriations bill, a budget of expenditures and sources of financing, including receipts from existing and proposed revenue measures.”
The Senate will resume its plenary sessions on Monday after the two-week work suspension in light of the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.
Senate finance committee chairperson Sonny Angara said the upper chamber will look closely on the proposed P240 billion fund for the government’s COVID-19 response lodged in the 2022 appropriations.
“Ang dilemma bukod sa isyu ng tiwala ay sa nakaraang mga taon, hingi nang hingi ng dagdag pondo si [Health Sec.Francisco Duque III] sa maraming okasyon, ‘yun pala di nila ginagastos lahat,” Angara said in a separate text message.
(The dilemma is, apart from the issue of trust, Sec. Duque, in many occasions, asked for additional budget which the department did not utilize.)
Sotto said they will ask the Department of Health to provide them a plan on how the agency will spend the money appropriated to them by Congress.
“We’ll ask for many more bright ideas from them on how they intend to spend it considering the kind of expenditure report we are getting,” Sotto said.
The Commission on Audit earlier flagged the “deficiencies” in the DOH’s use of P67 billion in COVID-19 response funds.
These deficiencies in the use of funds led to missed opportunities to improve the country’s healthcare system amid a state of national emergency, COA Supervising Auditor Rhodora Ugay said last Tuesday.
Final budget
The Department of Education will get the highest amount of budget at P773 billion, followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways at P686 billion, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) at P250 billion, the Health Department at P242 billion and the Defense Department at P222 billion.
Rounding up the top 10 agencies in terms of budget allocation are: Department of Social Welfare and Development with P191.4 billion, Transportation Department with P151 billion, Department of Agriculture with P103 billion and the Department of Labor and Employment with P44 billion.
The P5.024-trillion budget for 2022 is the last budget proposal of the Duterte administration whose term ends on June 30.—LDF, GMA News
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