Congress ratified Wednesday the bicameral conference committee report on the budget proposal of P5.024 trillion for 2022 before both chambers adjourned after reconciling their own provisions.
ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, House committee on appropriations chairperson, said P50 billion was allocated for the special risk allowances (SRAs) of medical frontliners, while another P50 billion was allocated for booster shots.
Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Sonny Angara had said the 2022 national budget will be thick with government assistance to pandemic-affected sectors like public utility drivers, unemployed Filipinos, farmers, health workers, indigents, and even hospitals and schools.
He had described the spending plan as a “COVID Recovery Budget.”
It will now be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval and signature. Lawmakers hope to have Duterte sign the bill before the New Year to avoid a reenacted budget.
As mandated by the Constitution, Angara said education gets the biggest allotment, especially for the Department of Education and the state universities and colleges as the country is returning to face-to-face classes.
“Our bicam report also makes good on current initiatives to jumpstart our economic recovery and support ailing companies, especially MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises),” Angara said.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said the House of Representatives “carried the duty of crafting policies to shepherd the Philippines towards recovery."
As of Dec. 14, a total of 133 Republic Acts have been passed with the approval of 930 measures on final reading and adoption of 266 resolutions.
"If there is one thing that the pandemic has shown us, it is that we are stronger than we knew. We are more capable than we realized. We have seen that there is more that unites us than divides us. We have seen that our legislative work is vital to our pandemic response," he said.
But Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate lamented that the proposed 2022 national budget was not designed to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it would still need further improvement.
Only P53.478 million was deducted from the budget of the Office of the President, Zarate said, adding there is still a huge allocation for intelligence and confidential funds that could have been realigned to aid and other needs of the people amid the COVID-19 crisis.
He said the bicameral conference committee must have completely defunded the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed, instead of allotting over P16 billion to it.
"These funds, rather than be spent on red tagging, spreading of fake news and pork barrel, can be better utilized in ramping up our COVID response, especially with new rampaging variants and helping our suffering people," he said in a statement.
The increase in the Department of Health's budget was too meager, while the budget of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police were still bigger than that of the task force.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas expressed disappointment over the bicameral conference committee report, citing the funds added to the health sector was too small despite the threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro cited that the minimal budget increase for the DepEd could not ensure safe face-to-face classes in 2022.
She said the added P200-million fund to the budget of the Commission on Elections would not be enough to provide additional honorarium for election workers.
