The Office of the President (OP) breezed through committee-level budget deliberations in the Senate on Wednesday, with no lawmaker asking the office represented by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin questions on its 2024 spending plan.
It took the Senate finance committee, headed by Senator Sonny Angara, only around 21 minutes to tackle the OP’s budget request for next year, like how the House appropriations panel terminated the hearing for the President’s office after half an hour.
The topic of confidential and intelligence funds, a hot-button issue that has hogged the headlines in the past month, was not raised.
“There are no colleagues [here], meaning they have a vote of confidence in your budget, so we will favorably endorse your budget for plenary consideration,” said Angara.
He directed the OP and the Presidential Management Staff to present the slides they prepared.
Bersamin earlier requested for P10,707,927,000 for the OP next year. He said this represents 1% of the proposed total national budget next year.
“It will be enough for the President to meet exacting demands of being the head of state, the head of government, the chief architect of Philippine foreign policy, the Commander-in-chief as well as the Chief Executive especially during this challenging times of rebuilding the nation from the effects of a global pandemic of a significant scale,” he explained.
The lifting of the pandemic restrictions, he said, provides an avenue for the President to conduct in-person affairs of the state.
“There are more meetings being now conducted, more presidential public engagements being held, the Cabinet is convened more often,” the former Chief Justice added.
According to Bersamin, they are seeking a “modest increase,” but at a rate that is within the norm of previous fiscal years.
The budget they were asking, he said, is higher by 17.78 percent or P1.6 billion compared to the P9.091 billion budget of the OP in the current year.
Based on the recommended budget of OP for next year, capital outlay got the highest increase which was 183.72 percent or P1.676 billion from P590.794 million for this year, mainly for the renovation and rehabilitation of facilities and the establishment of support facilities in Malacanang.