Congress realigns P215B worth of allocations under proposed 2023 budget

Congress has realigned at least P215 billion of the proposed P5.26-trillion budget for 2023, congressional leaders said Friday, the first day of the bicameral conference meeting aimed at producing a reconciled version of the national spending plan.

"Although there are disagreeing provisions, I believe it was about P215 billion worth of increase in budget items [due to realignments]," Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo, the House appropriations panel vice chairperson, told reporters.

"Sa tingin ko naman mabilis makaka-agree ang House at Senado dahil mayroon tayo, for the first time, in-adopt natin ang medium term fiscal framework."

The MTFF sets the following goals of the Marcos administration:

• reducing poverty incidence to 9%
• 6.5-7.5% real GDP growth in 2022
• 6.5-8% real GDP growth annually between 2023 to 2028
• 3% national government deficit to Gross Domestic Product ratio by 2028
• less than 60% national government debt-to-GDP ratio by 2025 and
• at least $4,256 gross national income per capita to attain upper middle income status, among others

"This MTFF contains the socioeconomic agenda of the President, and that will be the guiding posts of the House and the Senate," Quimbo said.

Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Senate finance committee, said that the realignment of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) would remain a point of contention, even as he expressed confidence that everything would be resolved.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is proposing a P4.5-billion CIF for his office next year, while Vice President Sara Duterte is seeking a P500-million CIF under her office's P2.3-billion proposed allocation.

"Yes, we discussed it (CIF) and Senator [Risa] Hontiveros already said that she hopes that the Senate amendment realigning hundreds of million of CIF to other agencies will be sustained [by the bicam panel]," Angara said.

The Senate earlier realigned P152 million worth of CIF to various agencies when it approved the proposed 2023 national budget on third and final reading. 

"Hindi naman natin tinanggalan ng pondo iyong ahensya kundi nilagay sa kanilang MOOE [We did not cut their budget but just reallocated the funds to the agencies' Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses]," Angara said.

Asked if there are similarities between the P77 billion in realignments made by the House and the Senate’s P215 billion in reallocated budget items, Angara said it is possible.

“Hindi maiiwasan ‘yun [na may similar amendments ang House and Senate] because most of the Senators base their amendments from what is in the NEP (National Expenditure Program). Hindi nila alam minsan na nagagalaw na iyon [ng House],” he added.

(It can’t be helped that there are similar amendments proposed by the House and Senate because senators tend to base their amendments from what is in the NEP...they don’t know that such a proposal has been amended since.)

The NEP is Marcos' original budget proposal to Congress, as submitted by the Department of Budget and Management. 

The Senate and House contingents designated and authorized Angara and House appropriations committee chairman Elizaldy Co to discuss and reconcile the differing provisions. 

Angara said Congress is expected to come up with a reconciled version of the 2023 budget bill next week.

In an interview with GMA News Online, Hontiveros expressed hope that the bicameral conference committee would keep the revisions made by the Senate minority.

“Sinabi ko dito sa budget bicam sana i-uphold yung mga amyenda namin ng Senate minority doon sa pagiging mas transparent and accountable ng mga confidential and intelligence funds sa pamamaraan ng pag-submit ng lahat ng mga ahensya na may CIF ng work plan at pagsumite nila ng quarterly report sa both houses of Congress,” the minority senator said.

Hontiveros said she was confident that Angara would push for their amendments in the final version of the 2023 budget.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a member of the bicameral panel who was absent during the meeting, urged his colleagues in the House and the Senate to align the national budget for next year with the administration’s priorities as laid out by Marcos in his first State of the Nation Address and make it responsive to the country’s effort to recover from the "economic realities" of the pandemic.

Cayetano cited rising commodity prices and limited fiscal space as current economic realities in the country.

The lawmaker said he will continue pushing for budgetary alignments such as increases in the budget for the National Irrigation Administration, farm-to-market roads, new road networks, roads, and bridges, as well as community centers and parks.

Further, Cayetano urged the bicameral panel to fine-tune the budget and ensure that it will "offer good prices for farmers and better employment benefits for our workers."

“This is democracy at work. Masaya tayo sa Senate version ng budget, pero kailangan ding i-point out na may mga portions na kailangan ng improvement. We are not giving up on these and we will continue advocating for them in the bicam,” he said.

Co said that Congress will act quickly on the proposed budget. 

“The General Appropriations Bill is consistent with the action plan of this administration in addressing the rising inflation driven by internal and external factors, socioeconomic scarring, and low income. We are still on the path of recovery from the lingering effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the policy choices that we will make in this budget will determine the success of our transition coming off the pandemic,” Co said during his opening remarks.

“My fervent hope is that in the coming days, we will be able to reconcile our differences and harmonize them with the needs of our constituents. Our shared aspiration is to bring a better quality of life for Filipinos,” he added.

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan of the 4Ps party-list said the 2023 national budget should alleviate the plight of the people.

“The amendments we want should help our people,” he said. —KBK/VBL, GMA Integrated News