Duterte to sign proposed P5-T 2022 nat’l budget on Dec. 28 — Sotto

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign the proposed P5-trillion national budget for 2022 on December 28, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Wednesday.

Sotto said he would sign the budget bill before it is transmitted to Malacañang on Thursday.

“I’m signing [the budget bill] Thursday, then transmitting [it] to PRRD. He is scheduled to sign on the 28th,” he said.

Department of Budget and Management officer-in-charge Tina Rose Canda said they also expect the President to sign the General Appropriations Bill next week.

"We expect the 2022 budget measure will be signed before the year ends so it’s between after Christmas until the 29th. These are the days that are open," she said at a Palace press briefing on Wednesday.

GMA News Online has asked acting presidential spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles to confirm the date of the signing, but he has yet to respond as of posting time.

Ratified by both the Senate and House of Representatives on December 15, the budget bill contains COVID-19-related allocations, including at least P50 billion for the Special Risk Allowances of medical frontliners and another P50 billion for booster shots.

There are also allocations for the COVID-19 Laboratory Network Commodities, Department of Health 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.

Lawmakers also allotted around P5 billion for the social amelioration program; up to P25.018 billion for social pension for indigent senior citizens; funds for the Department of Labor and Employment’s Integrated Livelihood Program; P39.865 billion for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations; and funds for the Emergency Repatriation Fund of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara said the Department of Public Works and Highways' operations would receive more than P700 billion under the Duterte administration's last budget, in line with the "Build, Build, Build" program.

The controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict will receive around P17 billion. — VBL, GMA News