Senate approves P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget on final reading

Voting 22-0, the Senate approved on third and final reading Wednesday the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.

Senator Juan Edgardo Angara read the committee amendments to House Bill 4228 and no senator raised their individual amendments.

Angara said an additional P6 billion was allocated for the Department of Education’s Last Mile Schools Program “to address the gaps in resources and facilities of schools located in geographically isolated and disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas.”

The DepEd will also get a P5.17-billion additional allocation for the Voucher Program for Private Senior High School.

The budget for State Universities and Colleges was increased by P1.158 billion.

The senator said the budget for the Philippine General Hospital was increased by P644 million.

An additional P3.173 billion have also been set aside under the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) to upgrade the salaries of Nurse I and Nurse II positions, in compliance with the October 2019 Supreme Court decision (Ang Nars Party List et al vs. Executive Secretary) upgrading the minimum salary of government nurses (Nurse I) from SG 11 to SG 15, Angara said.

Angara said P920 million was allocated to the Philippine Army for the activation of one infantry division to directly address the continuing threat posed by the Abu Sayyaf Group in Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi areas.

He added the Veterans Memorial Medical Center will get an additional P150 million for drugs and medicines and hiring of job order workers.

The Philippine National Police will be getting P1.529 billion increase for its efforts to restore peace in the countryside (ELCAC program); for the Intelligence and Counter Intelligence activities of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group, and Internal Security Operations; and for the maintenance of newly procured H125 Helicopter, patrol vehicles, rubber boats and high speed tactical watercrafts, newly completed police stations and crime laboratories and Provincial Mobile Force Companies, among others, he further said.

The senators proposed an additional P32 billion under the MPBF for the next round of salary increases of government employees in response to the clamor of our public school teachers and other government officials, Angara said.

The items whose allocations were cut to make the adjustments are not immediately available for publication.

The Senate and House of Representatives will now convene the bicameral conference committee to reconcile the disagreeing provisions in the budget bill.

Members of the Senate contingent in the bicam are Angara, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Cynthia Villar, Pia Cayetano, Christopher ‘Bong’ Go, Imee Marcos, Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Richard Gordon, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, and Francis Pangilinan.—NB, GMA News