House expected to approve P2.0Tr national budget today

House of Representatives. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ARNOLD ALMACEN

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is expected to approve on second reading the proposed P2.006 trillion national budget for 2013 within the day, Thursday, starting with the swift termination of the period of debates on the proposed P56.2 billion budget for the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

House committee on appropriations chairman Joseph Emilio Abaya, the newly confirmed Transportation and Communications chief, told reporters on the sidelines of the budget deliberations that he was hopeful that the proposed funding would be approved tonight.

He said he hoped the budget would be passed “tonight, not early tomorrow” unlike previous budget deliberations.

Asked whether amendments were included in House Bill 6455 or the General Appropriations Act of 2013, Abaya admitted that he has not personally seen any yet.

“I have a few in mind but nothing major yet,” he said.

Occidental Mindoro Representative Amelita Villarosa of the minority bloc moved to terminate the DSWD budget debates and lawmakers resumed deliberations on the proposed P2.006 trillion national budget for next year.

Sulu Representative Tupay Loong asked DSWD budget sponsor Guimaras Representative Joaquin Carlos Nava about the additional 700,000 beneficiaries next year of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Nava informed Loong that the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao would have one of the biggest allocations under the said program next year.

Senior Citizens’ Partylist Representative David Kho also urged the DSWD to prioritize the elderly in in the said program, asking that they be exempt from conditions which are inapplicable to them.