Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson has doubled the 2013 infrastructure budget for repaving national roads in the Cordillera to help speed up road improvement in the upland region, an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) here said.
Senate funding for oversight committees in the form of maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), the unused amounts of which the Commission on Audit (COA) cannot examine, more than doubled to about P450 million since President Aquino took office three years ago.
The Commission on Elections has obtained an additional P4.14 billion to support preparations for the synchronized national and local elections and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls in May.
The scrooge says he and other senators are being unfairly tarred and feathered in the Santa Claus controversy.
Malacañang is in no mood to act as a referee between warring factions in the Senate over its operational budget.
Sen. Loren Legarda on Wednesday denied having received a P1.6 million cash gift from Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile last Christmas but said if the money had been set aside for her she would use it for a resettlement program for people in areas ravaged by Typhoon “Pablo.”
Senators didn’t have all the fun last Christmas.
Ever wonder why many are dying to become senators?
“It’s time to call a spade a spade,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Wednesday in response to an Inquirer report in which a colleague described as “unconscionable and unconstitutional” his decision to grant last Christmas P1.6 million in additional maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) to each of 18 senators.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile played Santa Claus last Christmas, making a list and checking it twice as he gave gifts to Senate members and personnel apparently on the basis of who were “naughty” or “nice.”
Strife-torn Mindanao provinces will receive this year a peace dividend in the form of a P745.5-million additional budget for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Senate on Wednesday evening passed on third and final reading the P2-trillion budget for 2013, and President Aquino, according to Senator Franklin Drilon, is expected to sign it before Christmas.
The Department of Science and Technology is seeking a P10.09-billion budget for 2013, which is 8 percent higher than the P9.248 billion that the agency used this year, to increase government’s ability to reduce the risk of seasonal disasters.
