Senate eyes 2023 budget ratification by end-November —Zubiri

The Senate is eyeing to ratify the proposed P5.268-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2023 by the end of November, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Monday.

In an interview with reporters, Zubiri said the 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will be sponsored on November 8 and the debates will start a day after its sponsorship.

The chamber targets to approve the measure on third and final reading by November 23.

"Hopefully, we can pass it and ratify it before the 30th [November]. So 'yan ang target ng Senado and as you know, nag-iintay na lang po 'yung House of Representatives sa atin para sa ating version," Zubiri said.

Zubiri said there will be no committee hearings during the plenary deliberations of the 2023 GAB. The Commission on Appointments sessions are likewise suspended until November 22 to 23.

The Senate chief assured that there will be no reenacted budget in 2023, considering the good relationship between the lower and upper chambers.

"Definitely, hindi po tayo magkakaroon ng reenacted budget. Maganda po ang samahan namin sa House of Representatives, together with Speaker Martin [Romualdez] and Majority Leader Manix Dalipe and we are going to assure the public right now that we're not going to have a reenacted budget," Zubiri said.

"We promised the president that we'll pass it latest second week of December. What I mean when I say pass, ratified na. Ibibigay na namin yung libro sa kanya. Gusto po namin ay magkaroon tayo ng signing bago mag-Pasko," he added.

With a limited fiscal space, Zubiri said they will practice "fiscal responsibility" and efficiency.

However, Zubiri said he is not against the allocation of confidential and intelligence funds for various law enforcement agencies and departments.

He was reacting to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III's call to realign the over P9 billion confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) under the proposed 2023 national budget for the government’s standby money for calamity response.

"Personally, I don’t really have a problem with confidential and intelligence funds...If it’s not exorbitantly large, and they can justify the use for the confidential funds, I have no problem with that. As long as, at the end of the day, they certify where the money was used for with the [Commission on Audit]," Zubiri said.

The Senate chief mentioned that even city mayors and governors have hundreds of millions of confidential and intelligence funds.

"Kawawa naman yung mga departamento na tanggalan mo ng confidential funds na pangangailangan nila for their data gathering... Hindi naman yan na cash ibibigay at ibubulsa," he said.

Zubiri explained that these funds would need to undergo COA procedures and it would need to be certified before it can be utilized.

Meanwhile, Zubiri reiterated his call to create an agency that will ensure "proper coordination" during disasters and calamities.

"I may sound like a broken record, we really have to streamline the NDRRMC. I know NDRRMC is triggered only when there is a calamity, I think, is again, [an] archaic system of coordination. Dapat katulad ng Estados Unidos na meron po silang FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is in charge of calamities," he said.

He explained that creating an agency instead of a department will be in line with the government's rightsizing efforts.

Zubiri raised the matter anew after he visited several areas in Mindanao that were hit by Severe Tropical Storm Paeng.

"We have to have an agency and I am appealing to the President, that hopefully he will agree to let us create at least an agency which is the Disaster Management Agency, an offshoot of our Department of Disaster Resilience para to comply lang sa rightsizing but at the same time, meron pong nakatutok, dedicated agency for disaster preparedness, disaster response and disaster rehabilitation," he said.—LDF, GMA News