No government agency will be defunded in the Senate version of the P3.767-trillion 2018 national budget, Sen. Loren B. Legarda assured over the weekend amid moves by the House of Representatives to slash the annual budget of three key agencies to P1,000 each.
House leaders, justifying the move, said they were looking for funds for the free higher education law that President Duterte recently signed.
“There will be no government agency without a budget,” Legarda, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee crafting the Senate version of the budget bill, said last Sunday, adding that, as far as the panel is concerned, “we already approved the budget”.
At the same time, Legarda said the proposed P3-trillion budget bill can be funded without imposing new taxes.
“The question is underspending,” the Finance Committee chairman pointed out. “We are very particular about underspending because the funds are there for public projects as requested by the agencies during the budget calls for departments to submit their spending programs.”
Legarda confirmed the Senate Finance Committee had already restored the 2018 budgets of three agencies earlier reported to have been given P1,000 each in the House version, including the P643-million budget for the Commission on Human Rights, P360 million for the Energy Regulatory Commission and P1.88 billion for the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
“As far as the Senate Finance committee is concerned, we already [restored the cuts], these offices cannot function without budgets,” the senator said in a radio interview, adding she does not foresee any deadlock with the House on the issue.
She added: “I assure you there will be no government agency with no budget. I am not saying their proposed budget will be approved as submitted but I assure them they will have a budget [because] who can operate with no budget?”
The senator said they expect the House-approved version of the 2018 budget bill to be transmitted to the Senate by September 21, “otherwise it will be delayed”.
Meanwhile, the public outcry of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) over its slashed budget notwithstanding, the House of Representatives maintained its decision to give the constitutional body a P1,000 budget for next year.
House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles of Davao City said the lower chamber “cannot touch” any more the budget for the commission. “Those [decisions] are untouchables for me,” Nograles said.
For his part, Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, head of the Visayan bloc, said the move of the lower chamber to reduce the budget of CHR to P1,000 was more of a political statement.
“[It] aimed to show disapproval over the selective investigations conducted by the CHR. I firmly believe that we should preserve the institution and, instead, seek the removal of officials who clearly failed to perform their duties,” Benitez said.
The lower chamber is expected to approve on third and final reading the P3.7-trillion national budget or the proposed 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA) this week. After the House and Senate approve the proposed GAA in their respective chambers, a bicameral conference meeting will be held to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the national budget.
According to Nograles, the lower chamber will also stand to reduce the funding of the CHR during the bicameral meeting for the 2018 GAA with the Senate. The bicameral body is expected to meet in November.
“[However] I think they can use contingency funds to be able to augment operations [including the salary of workers],” Nograles said. Earlier, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said the CHR’s budget will be realigned to fund the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
Apart from the CHR, the lowerchamber also cut the National Commission for Indigenous People and the Energy Regulatory Commission’s 2018 budget to P1,000 each, from P1.187-billion and P350.95 million, respectively.
“Those [P1,000 each budget of the three offices] were moved and approved in plenary. I cannot anymore amend that,” Nograles said.
Nograles added the 2018 budget of National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and Energy Regulatory Commission will also be realigned for the implementation of the free-college education. He said the government needs P16 billion to P30 billion to finance the free-college education of students.
With reports from Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz