Did Malacañang prevail in 2023 budget? Angara says Marcos admin needs support in its first year

The first budget under the Marcos administration should support its priority programs and initiatives, Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara said as he refuted criticisms that Malacañang's wishes prevailed in the crafting of the 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

The senator made the remark Wednesday when asked in a television interview about criticisms that Congress has lost its independence in the budgetary process and followed the dictates of Malacañang.

"You know, it's the first budget of the Marcos administration so you want to also support the initiatives of the administration," Angara said in an ANC interview.

He said critics are looking at certain controversial details of the GAB but the proposed 2023 budget, as crafted by Congress, has followed the priorities of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., including the increase in the budget of the Department of Agriculture, which is currently headed by the chief executive.

"So what does that mean in practice? It's a higher budget for health, for agriculture, for education, for infrastructure. How can we debate these things, 'di ba? Are they trying to say that they don't agree with higher budgets for these agencies then I'm willing to debate with them on that. Kung ayaw nila sabihin nila bakit ayaw nila ng higher budget for health," he said.

"'Di ba makakatulong 'yon sa ating mga kababayan? Why don't they want a higher budget for agriculture in a time of inflation? Isn't that good for our countrymen to have food security and better local production of rice and corn. Maybe they are looking at the little things and not the bigger picture," he added.

For 2022, Angara noted that the agriculture sector only got P68 billion but they will receive PP98 billion under the 2023 GAB.

"How can you say it's (agriculture sector) a loser? The President promised that during the campaign that he said food security and affordable food would be one of the hallmarks of his administration," he said.

"'Yun po 'yung point natin when we say maybe you're nitpicking at the expense of the bigger picture but at the end of the day there's more funds to support our local farmers, to support local production. I think that is the bottomline that is important," he added.

Last Monday, both houses of Congress ratified the P5.268-trillion appropriations for 2023.

The final version of the 2023 GAB retained the P150 million confidential and intelligence fund of the Department of Education headed by Vice President Sara Duterte and the P10 billion budget for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.—AOL, GMA Integrated News