THE House of Representatives on Wednesday night approved the Palace’s proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said the approval of the budget on second reading “is one big step towards the realization of President Rodrigo Duterte’s agenda for a true and meaningful change.”
“This budget will fuel our quest for reforms that would uplift the lives of our people and fight the many evils plaguing our nation such as drugs, crime and corruption,” Nograles said.
The Lower House also formed a small committee headed by Nograles where each of the 294 House members are required to submit their individual amendments until Oct. 10.
House Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas earlier said they would pass the budget measure on third and final reading before Congress adjourns session on Oct. 19 for a Halloween break.
Once passed on third reading, the House committee on appropriations will then print copies of the budget measure. This will be then transmitted to the Senate, after which lawmakers and senators will hold bicameral conference committee meetings to reconcile differences in their respective versions.
Nograles said the 2017 national budget is expected to be signed by President Duterte as soon as the House and the Senate are able to pass and ratify the budget measure when Congress resumes session on Nov. 7.
Both the House and the Senate are expected to hold bicameral conference committee meetings when they resume sessions in November. They are expected to submit the budget measure to the President for signature by December.
Nograles maintained the proposed national budget for 2017 is a pro-poor budget as it “expands the productive capacities of the national economy to ensure that the poor are enabled to engage in the processes of and benefit from the fruits of growth, to truly bring nation building to the consciousness and reality of every Filipino.”
The proposed 2017 national budget is 11.6 percent higher than the 2016 national budget at P3.002 trillion.
With a higher budget, Nograles said the government will have more room to fund socioeconomic services to ensure that no one is left behind in the “pursuit of equitable prosperity.”
“In order for real change to happen, growth must be felt by all, especially by the most disadvantaged classes in our society,” Nograles said.
The Budget department said the 2017 national budget is 20.4 percent of the GDP compared to this year’s 20.1 percent of GDP according to the DBM.
The top 10 agencies in terms of budgetary allocations are: Department of Education (DepEd), P567.5 billion; Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), P458.6 billion; Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), P150 billion; Department of National Defense (DND), P134.5 billion; Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), P129.9 billion; Department of Health (DOH), P94 billion; State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), P58.8 billion; Department of Transportation (DOTr), P55.4 billion; Department of Agriculture (DA), P45.2 billion; and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), P41.7 billion.
During the budget submission last month by the DBM to House leaders, led by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the proposed budget focuses resources on programs and projects that will achieve the Duterte administration’s 10-point development agenda.
Of the P3.35 trillion national budget, Diokno said: 40 percent will be for empowering human resources through education, healthcare, social welfare and other social services; 27.6 percent for economic services to fix the broken infrastructure network, boost agricultural and rural sector, and generate more jobs and livelihood; and 22 percent for general public services and defense.
