Bicameral committee approves proposed 2015 national budget

Senate of the Philippines. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The congressional bicameral conference committee approved on Wednesday the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 sans the proposed P8-billion continent fund for Bangsamoro.

The approval came after the committee conducted two hearings — the first hearing was held at the House of Representatives last week, and the second was held this Wednesday at the Senate, which only lasted for about five minutes.

The bicameral committee report will then be transmitted back to the House and the Senate for ratification before it can be submitted to President Benigno Aquino III for his signature.

“Hindi namin ginalaw ‘yung ceiling, hindi binawasan ‘yung proposed budget pero may realignments na ginawa ang bicameral conference committee,” Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, head of the Senate panel, told reporters after the hearing.

(We didn’t revise the ceiling, we didn’t remove anything from the proposed budget, but the bicameral conference committee did some realignments.)

“The total realignments to the budget as proposed by the President is P72.542 billion, a big chunk of that nanggaling sa unprogrammed fund d’un sa MRT (came from the (Metro Rail Transit’s) unprogrammed fund)…” he said.

Escudero said the realigned budget will go to rehabilitation fund for calamity-stricken communities and the rehabilitation of the MRT-3, among others.

The proposed P8 billion for Bangsamoro, on the other hand, was rejected by the bicameral committee. The budget was included in the “errata” that the Department of Budget and Management submitted to Congress.

“Hindi namin ni restore ‘yun. Tinanggal ‘yun (We didn’t restore it. It was removed),” said Escudero.

Asked how this would affect the budget of the Bangsamoro, the senator said, “I don’t know, and I don’t see any problem dahil kapag na-approve ‘yung Bangsamoro Basic Law, magkakaroon ng Bangsamoro Transition Commission na s’ya nang hahawak ng pondo ng ARMM (I don’t see any problem because when the Bangsamoro Basic Law is approved, a Bangsamoro Transition Committee will be created and it will handle the funds of the (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao)).

And the fund of the ARMM, Escudero said, was roughly P24 billion — enough to fund the Bangsamoro transition.

The approved budget report of the bicameral committee will then be transmitted back to the House of Representatives and the Senate for ratification before it can be submitted to President Benigno Aquino III for his signature.

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Originally posted: 10:57 AM | Wednesday, December 10th, 2014