MANILA, Philippines — Three landmark laws signed under the Duterte administration did not receive enough funding, Senator Panfilo Lacson pointed out on Tuesday.
“There are three landmark laws passed under this admin which I consider underfunded,” Lacson said during the Senate deliberations on the proposed 2020 budget of the Department of Health.
Lacson was referring to the Universal Health Care Act, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education and the Philippine Identification System Act.
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“‘Yong Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education under the (Tertiary Education Subsidy), ang kaya lang pondohan 432,000 out of 1.5 million applicants kasi ang pondo P21 billion lang,” Lacson said.
(The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education under the (Tertiary Education Subsidy) can only fund 432,000 out of 1.5 million applicants with only P21 billion in funding).
“Another one (is the)…National ID system. Again as we discussed during deliberation do’n sa budget ng (National Economic and Development Authority), ang available lang dito at nasa unprogrammed fund pa (ay) P2.4 billion. Ang kaya ma-register from (ay) 6.3 million Filipinos and resident aliens,” he added.
(Another one (is the)…National ID system. Again as we discussed during deliberation do’n sa budget ng (National Economic and Development Authority) the only available budget for this is P2.4 billion. That could only register 6.3 million Filipinos and resident aliens).
Lacson noted that P P5.165 billion is needed to fund the implementation of the national ID system.
“If we can source the additional or the lack of funds from the required P5.165 billion, ang ma-register 14 million Filipinos and resident aliens so kulang din, so I mentioned that because these are legacy programs of this admin. Talagang ito yung pwede ipagmalaki na only under this admin na nagkaroon,” he added.
(If we can source the additional or the lack of funds from the required P5.165 billion, that could register 14 million Filipinos and resident aliens, it’s still lacking. I mentioned that because these are legacy programs of this admin. These are landmark laws that we can be proud of).