House juggles 2020 funds

The House, which is preparing the P4.1 trillion national budget, also slashed the Department of Health budget of P10.6 billion to just P88 billion.

With the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms yet to meet on proposals to postpone the 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, House leaders have already stripped the polls of budget and divided them among themselves.

Much of the juggled funds — realignments as they call it — will go to the new committees formed to keep the new majority formed by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and to several of his projects that include the Asean Para Games. (Related story on page 3)

The redirected funds will also fill the gaps formed by Cayetano’s creation of new committees and his appointment of more deputy speakers to accommodate the number of congress leaders who supported his term-sharing deal with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.

To start with, Cayetano on Monday announced that the P5 billion funds for the 2020 Barangay and SK elections will be realigned to other agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture (DA) and Education (DepEd).

The House Speaker explained the move to realign the budget was due to the suspension of the 2020 Barangay and SK elections, noting that there will be more funds that will not be utilized.

This despite no enabling law yet to support the elections’ postponement.

“We will not be having the barangay elections, so there is more than P5 billion,” Cayetano said, when asked where the House will source the funds for the agencies whose budgets they would want to increase.

“The other one we’re looking at is the right-of-way funds that will not be utilized entirely,” he added.

The Taguig Representative also said they have already coordinated with the Executive department about these institutional amendments to prevent a possible presidential veto.

The House, which is preparing the P4.1 trillion national budget, also slashed the Department of Health budget of P10.6 billion to just P88 billion.

The cut is comes at a time when the Health department is combatting the spread of dengue virus, the measles epidemic and the recent resurgence of polio.

The budget cut is also seen to affect the establishment of the Malasakit Centers started by former Special Assistant to the President and now Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, and the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law, which is seen to be stalled by lack of funds.

Cayetano previously stated that the House leadership considers increasing the funding of the DA for palay procurement and the DepEd for additional equipment and training for teachers under the K to 12 program.

The lawmaker also noted that the House wants to increase the Department of Energy’s funding for electrification and the Philippine’s Sports Commission for the 2020 Para Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Cayetano revealed that numerous bills seeking to postpone the May 2020 Barangay and SK elections are now pending before the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.

Cayetano added that they are looking to cut “fats” and not “muscles” in the P4.1 trillion fund.

He also defended the House’s request for additional funding next year, saying that the P1.6 billion in additional funds will be used not only for additional committees, chairmen and vice chairmen but also to enhance the chamber’s capability.

Congress’ budget for 2020 is P22 billion, and P7.4 billion of it goes to the Senate, while P14 billion goes to the House.

Aside from the additional expenses, Cayetano also explained that part of the P1.6 billion will be allotted to the enhancement of the facilities at the House and noted that it might be also used for the implementation of the proposed Salary Standardization Law in 2020.

Cayetano has 22 Deputy Speakers. The number doubled as there were only 14 Deputy Speakers in the 17th Congress.