DPWH suffers P32B budget cut from Senate panel

(FILE) SENATE OPENS PLENARY DEBATES ON PROPOSED 2022 BUDGET: Finance Committee chair Sen. Sonny Angara opens plenary debates on the proposed 2022 national budget amounting to P5.024 trillion during Tuesday’s hybrid plenary session, November 9, 2021. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) suffered a huge budget cut from senators, slashing its proposed allocation next year by P32 billion.

Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, confirmed that the DPWH received the biggest cut in the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022.

From the P698.168 billion approved by the House of Representatives, Angara’s panel reduced the DPWH’s budget for next year to P665.5 billion.

Despite the budget cut,  DPWH  remains to be the second-highest funded agency of government following the education sector with P738.6 billion.

Angara’s panel, meanwhile,  raised the Department of Health’s proposed budget by  P44 billion.

The House allocated P182.6 billion for DOH but this was increased to P226.7 billion by the Senate panel.

Angara’s office earlier reported a total of P313.6 billion allocation for health and non-health programs of the government as the country continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

For COVID-19 benefit and compensation for health workers, the Senate panel allotted a total of P51 billion— P11 billion is programmed under the DOH while P40 billion is under unprogrammed funds.

The panel also approved a total of P61.6 billion for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in 2022.

Of the P61.6 billion, P16.245 billion will be sourced from the DOH while the remaining P45.3 billion was placed under the unprogrammed funds.

Aside from the DPWH, Angara also reported earlier having slashed the proposed budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) by P24 billion — from P28.1 billion to only P4 billion next year.

All these and other recommendations of the panel are currently being deliberated in the Senate plenary.

/MUF