Day 1 of budget deliberation ends as House panel terminates DBCC briefing

The House of Representatives opens deliberations on the proposed P5.2-trillion national budget for 2023. Speaker Martin Romualdez (center), House appropriations panel Zaldy Co (right), and House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo (left) led the opening for the deliberations at the plenary hall. (Contributed photo from Office of Rep. Zaldy Co)

MANILA, Philippines — The first day of deliberations for the 2023 proposed national budget ended after the House of Representatives committee on appropriations terminated the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing.

During the hearing on Friday – presided by House officials led by Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, appropriations committee chair and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, and vice chair and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo – participants in the DBCC discussed the budget and several issues hounding the agencies.

Among the last questions raised against DBCC before House officials terminated the hearing was how the government intends to implement public-private partnerships and the budget cuts allegedly suffered by the state university and colleges (SUCs) in the country.

Regarding the issue of budget cuts to SUCs, including the University of the Philippines (UP) system, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that their budget allocation for the said sector in the 2023 National Expenditures Program (NEP) increased compared to the 2022 NEP.

Pangandaman stressed that it appeared lower than the current year’s approved budget or the 2022 General Appropriations Act because the higher budget was from Congressional insertions.

“Madam Chair, Mr. Speaker, the budget for the state universities and colleges for 2023 amounts (to) P97.746 billion.  Compared to (the) 2022 NEP, the 2022 NEP is only P75.4 billion,” Pangandaman told the interpellator, Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel.

“And if we compare the 2022 GAA, it’s P108 billion, but the increase from the NEP are mostly CICA, these are Congress-Introduced Changes and Adjustments,” she added.

BH Rep. Herrera Dy also asked DBCC about the alleged growing trade deficit of the country and the economic cluster’s plans to stop it from growing. According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila Jr., the trade deficit, or the difference when a country’s imports exceed its exports, is seen to be 4.6 percent of GDP or US$19.1 billion.

However, Dakila said that the BSP expects the trade deficit to taper down with the decrease in import prices and oil product costs by 2023.

“We have (a) US$16.3 billion current account deficit, and that is equivalent to 3.8 percent of GDP (gross domestic product). We are projecting that for the entire year — that was the assessment for the first quarter of this year — as of the second quarter, we have revised it to $19.1 billion, equivalent to 4.6 percent of GDP,” he said.

“And that is on account of the higher oil prices. For comparison, our actual figure is a $4.8 billion deficit for the first quarter or 5 percent of GDP. But we see this as narrowing to 4.4 percent of GDP by next year, and the main reason for that is the moderation of import prices,” he added.

Aside from these issues, the DBCC — composed of DBM, BSP, the Department of Finance, and the National Economic and Development Authority — also responded to other queries from lawmakers who attended the budget discussions.

For example, the DBM was asked about the Procurement Service (PS) — an agency under its watch. It has been dragged in several controversies, the most recent of which was the procurement of expensive yet outdated laptops for the Department of Education.

Pangandaman pleaded to Congress to allow the current administration to clean PS-DBM first, as several lawmakers in both the House and the Senate have asked for its abolition.

READ: Give us a chance, we’ll clean procurement service, DBM asks Congress amid abolition calls 

DBM also admitted during the grueling deliberations that started as early as 9:30 a.m. that there are not enough funds in the proposed P5.268 trillion budget for 2023 to address the classroom shortage.

READ: DBM: Not enough funds to address classroom shortage in 2023 budget 

Last Monday, the House received the proposed budget from DBM, with leaders vowing to scrutinize the budget appropriately to ensure that the people benefit from the funding. They also assured the public that the budget would be deliberated efficiently, targeting to approve the NEP on the third and final reading before Congress goes on a recess by October.

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