P70 billion in budget realigned

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee realigned some P70 billion in the 2023 budget, which President Marcos is expected to sign this week, with at least two vetoes expected.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Marcos will sign the 2023 General Appropriations Act as scheduled tomorrow.

Pangandaman noted that lawmakers realigned roughly P70 billion in the 2023 budget.

“Upon our initial analysis and checking of numbers, most of it (realignment) went to our priority programs,” she said yesterday.

These include funding for the education sector, specifically state universities and colleges, for social services and the health sector.

Lawmakers also realigned resources to still fund the Libreng Sakay program along the EDSA Bus Carousel. The government, citing lack of funds, had announced that the free bus ride would no longer be extended beyond this month.

Marcos is still in Brussels for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union summits but will be back in the country later today.

“Right now, we are working on the veto message. We are consolidating the numbers and the amendments that the bicameral committee ratified last week,” Pangandaman said.

She emphasized that the good working relationship between the executive and legislative branches allowed minimal changes in the proposed budget.

“When we turned over the NEP (National Expenditure Program) to them [House of Representatives and Senate], we only asked for one thing and that is when they make changes, hopefully, it is in synch and anchored on the medium term fiscal framework (MTFF) and the eight point socioeconomic agenda,” Pangandaman said.

The MTFF is the administration’s blueprint to sustain the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery and support accelerated growth. It also serves as a roadmap for developing the government’s annual national expenditure program.

Both houses of Congress adopted the MTFF even prior to the submission of the 2023 budget.

As to the President’s veto message, Pangandaman said it is “very friendly.”

“I think we only have two to three direct vetoes. The rest are general and conditional observations,” she said.

Meanwhile, Pangandaman said Marcos will soon issue an executive order amending the previously issued EO on the Mandanas Ruling.

The Mandanas Ruling raised internal revenue allotment (IRA) transfers to local government units (LGUs), which means that all national taxes should be included in computing the tax base in determining the allocation for LGUs.

The EO issued by the Duterte administration seeks the full transition and devolution by 2024 but the economic team has proposed to extend this until 2027 to ensure that the national government can still support LGUs and provide funding and technical support.

“There are big ticket items such as creation of bridges and right of way mechanisms that LGUs cannot yet do on their own,” Pangandaman said.

The IRA for next year will be lower by P138 billion due to the pandemic.

In Brussels, Speaker Martin Romualdez said the 2023 budget is expected to promote economic growth through spending.

“The President is poised to sign the biggest budget ever for the country and we are told by the economic managers that this will be immediately deployed,” Romualdez told reporters in Belgium yesterday.

“So you’ll see close to two-thirds of that being deployed in the first semester so you can see how our economy’s growth will be sustained with the government’s spending,” he added. – Alexis Romero