No 'significant' items vetoed by Duterte in 2022 budget —DBM

President Rodrigo Duterte has vetoed a few items in the P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022, which are deemed to have no significant impact in the overall budget operations next year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Friday.

“Ang mga na-veto ay hindi naman mga delikadong item. May direct veto. Actually parang tatlong item ‘yan,” DBM officer-in-charge Undersecretary Tina Canda said at a virtual Palace virtual.

(The items vetoed are not significant. There was a direct veto. Actually those are three items.)

Duterte, on Thursday, signed the P5.024-trillion national budget bill for 2022 into law. 

As for the vetoed items in the next year’s budget, Canda said, “Number one, ‘yung application ng Agrarian Reform law sa mga state universities and colleges (the application of Agrarian Reform law in state universities and colleges).”

“Pangalawa, ang paggamit ng commercial banks, thrift banks for Department of Agriculture" (Second, is the use of commercial banks, thrift banks for the Department of Agriculture),  she said.

The last item vetoed by the President was the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) gender responsive restrooms program.

Canda said the vetoed items do not have budgetary provisions under the 2022 General Appropriations Act.

“Kumbaga ‘yun ay mga riders kasi… so it is actually a rider to the GAA,” she said.

Ratified by both the Senate and House of Representatives on December 15, the General Appropriations Act of 2022 contains COVID-related allocations, including at least P50 billion for the Special Risk Allowances of medical frontliners and another P50 billion for booster shots.

The 2022 budget also has allocations for the COVID-19 Laboratory Network Commodities, Department of Health (DOH) epidemiology and surveillance program; purchase of drugs, medicines and vaccines that will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program.

Malacañang said the budget will also fund the relief and rehabilitation efforts for victims of Typhoon Odette, which devastated communities in several regions days before Christmas. —LBG, GMA News