Voting 196 to 8, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, putting to rest fears of a reenacted budget next year.
The voting on House Bill 8169, or the 2019 General Appropriations Bill, came as House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. assured everyone that next year’s national budget was “pork-free.”
“We have been meeting since last week, we have agreed on a schedule and we are now stepping forward and even advancing the schedule that we have been talking about,” Andaya told reporters.
The House approved the budget in a plenary session with Deputy Speaker and Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay as presiding speaker.
Andaya said the 2019 budget was transparent and itemized, and was P10 billion less than the 2018 budget.
The House leadership led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo earlier ordered the alignment of the alleged pork barrel following the discovery of P52 billion in insertions in the proposed 2019 budget.
Arroyo ordered the realignment of the P51.792-billion insertions to other departments and projects to ensure an equitable distribution among all regions.
The allocations or alleged insertions that were being questioned were already realigned to the following items when the House convened into a committee of the whole: P5 billion as additional National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund for the rehabilitation of the areas badly hit by Typhoon “Ompong,” especially Cagayan Valley; P3 billion for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the Department of Health, which was reduced to P50 million; P3 billion for the department’s Health Human Resources Development “to stave off the mass layoff of 6,000 nurses and doctors and dentists as well”; P1.2 billion for the Capital Outlay of State Universities and Colleges ; P3 billion for the Technical-Vocational Laboratories under the Department of Education; P11 billion for roads to decongest traffic in the urban areas; P10 billion for roads for identified tourism areas; another P10 billion for roads to trade areas, economic zones, livelihood centers and markets; and P5 billion for the Department of Agriculture’s farm-to-market roads.
For the fiscal year 2019, the education sector will get the lion’s share of the national budget.
Of the proposed appropriations of P659.3 billion for the education sector, P528.8 billion will be allocated to the Health department; P65.2 billion will go to State Colleges and Universities; P50.5 billion to Commission on Higher Education; and P14.8 billion to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Public Works will receive the second highest allocation of P555.7 billion, which represents an increase of 25.8 percent or P113.9 billion compared with its P441.8 billion budget in 2018.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government will receive the third largest appropriation in 2019 of P225.6 billion, or 30.9 percent or P53.2 billion more than its 2018 funding of P172.4 billion.
The other top recipients are the Department of National Defense, P183.4 billion; Department of Social Welfare and Development, P173.3 billion; Department of Health, P141.2 billion, which includes P67.4 billion for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.; Department of Transportation, P141.4 billion; Department of Agriculture, P76.1 billion; the Judiciary with P37.3 billion; and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, P32.3 billion.
The infrastructure program for 2019, which will receive an appropriation of P909.7 billion, will fuel the administration’s Build, Build, Build Program.
