DBM: No ‘objectionable’ items found in 2020 budget

MANILA, Philippines — No “objectionable” item was found in the P4.1 trillion 2020 national budget recently signed by President Rodrigo Duterte, the Department of Budget and Management said Wednesday.

“Based on the review by the DBM, we didn’t find any item of appropriation provision or proviso that is strongly objectionable vis-à-vis existing laws and policies, and which cannot be addressed by conditional implementation or general observation,” DBM Director Ryan Lita said during the weekly economic briefing in Malacañang.

DBM issued the statement amid Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claims that there may still be “questionable” items in the budget.

Lacson earlier said he submitted the list of “questionable items” in the 2020 national budget to the DBM, alleging that last-minute insertions were made by the House of Representatives, possibly reaching P83-billion worth of projects or more.

The DBM said it will look into Lacson’s list, but pointed out that the budget has already been signed into law.

“I guess we have to look into it and we will know if there’s the value for that and given the fact that it’s already signed by the President, and there’s a value for that to change, or magbabago pa, I don’t think we can do that now because it was already signed by the President,” DBM Assistant Secretary Rolando Toledo said.

The President on Monday signed into law the P4.1 trillion 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) which is nine percent higher than last year’s budget of P3.76 trillion.