Office of the President gets P8.2-B budget

MANILA, Philippines — This year’s allocation for Malacañang is 21 percent more than its 2019 budget, with the Office of the President getting P8.201 billion, more than 80 percent of which will go to maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). President Rodrigo Duterte signed the 2020 General Appropriations Act worth P4.1 trillion on Monday. Confidential, intelligence and extraordinary expenses, which are all under the MOOE, are pegged at P4.5 billion. The budget for confidential and intelligence expenses both increased by 80 percent from 2019, with both pegged at P2.25 billion each. Extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses will get a budget of P16.98 million, 22.76 percent more than the P13.83 million it got last year. The President’s travel budget took a dip at P670.6 million, 18 percent lower than its P795.8 million allocation in 2019. —JULIE M. AURELIO