OP budget breezes thru House panel
Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe. From the Facebook post of Zamboanga City Rep. Jose Manuel Dalipe
MANILA, Philippines — Citing parliamentary courtesy to a coequal branch of the government, the House appropriations panel swiftly terminated deliberations on the P9.031-billion 2023 budget for Office of the President (OP), with no questions asked after a 10-minute budget briefing.
“By tradition of extending parliamentary courtesy to a coequal branch in government, I move to terminate the budget briefing of the Office of the President,” House majority leader Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe said after a budget briefing of less than 10 minutes on Friday morning. The motion was carried.
With the termination of the briefing, Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez, who was supposed to elaborate on budget details, was no longer required to answer questions and the budget was considered submitted to the House for plenary approval.
“In line with the expressed instruction of His Excellency, you can be assured that the Office of the President is here together with Your Honors in meeting the expectation and hope of the more than 112 million Filipinos [whom] the President now leads,” Rodriguez said.
The proposed P9.031-billion funding for the OP is P796 million, or 9.6 percent more than this year’s P8.235 billion.
The Makabayan bloc, however, slammed the “blind” approval of the proposed budget, which includes P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds.
