Vice President Leni Robredo decried on Sunday the prioritization of funds for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the proposed 2022 national budget in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her weekly radio program, Robredo mentioned that she agreed with generating more jobs under the Build Build Build program but questioned the timeliness of allocating more funds for the department during the pandemic.
“Halimbawa, ang laki ng itinaas ng DPWH. Ako naiintindihan ko, Ka Ely, na mahalaga ‘yung infrastructure pero sa sitwasyon ngayon na kailangan nga ang pinakaginagawa ngayon [ay] makontrol ang pandemic, wala rin,” Robredo said after she pointed out the budget cuts in the Department of Health.
(For example, there was a huge increase in the budget of the DPWH. I could understand that the infrastructure [program] is important but based on our situation right now, we need to control the pandemic.)
“Pero kung ganito kataas ang [mga] kaso [ng COVID-19] tapos iyan ang ibinibigay, ‘yung priority, parang mali,” she further said.
(But if cases are this high and you prioritize this, it’s wrong.)
GMA News Online has already contacted DBM and DPWH Secretary Mark Villar for comment but has yet to receive their statements as of posting time.
In the 2021 enacted national budget, the DPWH received P695.7 billion funds which is higher than the DOH’s 2021 budget of P210.2 billion.
For fiscal year 2022, DOH proposed a budget of P242.22 billion. A huge chunk of this, or P78.83 billion, is allotted for COVID-19 initiatives and programs related to the Universal Health Care law.
The House of Representatives has yet to tackle the 2022 proposed national budget for DPWH. But in the National Expenditure Program for 2022, the DBM appropriated P666 billion to DPWH. —with a report from Jon Viktor Cabuenas/KG, GMA News
Robredo hits prioritization of DPWH budget in pandemic
Source: Pinoy Hub News
0 Comments