Senate panel approves DFA’s 2023 budget

Department of Foreign Affairs Sec. Enrique Manalo presents Friday, September 30, 2022, the agency’s proposed budget for 2023. (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) P20.3-billion budget for next year hurdled the Senate finance subcommittee on Friday.

After more than four hours of deliberations, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, chairperson of the finance subcommittee, approved the DFA’s budget.

DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo expressed appreciation for the favorable response to their budget.

“I just wanted again to thank you, Madam Chair, for your full support for the DFA budget and also to assure you that the requests made this morning for additional information, we will certainly submit,” Manalo said.

“Again, to say that we’re very happy with the way the hearing was conducted, and I think in many ways you’ve also helped us learn a bit more of what we need to do to improve,” he continued.

Out of the P20.3-billion DFA budget, P20.17 billion will be allocated for the agency’s Office of the Secretary, while P128.79 million will be for its attached agencies.

The DFA’s budget accounts for 0.39 percent of the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023.

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