Congress signs bicam report of proposed P3.002-T 2016 budget

Senators Bam Aquino, Ralph Recto and Loren Legarda attend the bicameral committee hearing on the proposed 2016 budget. MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB/INQUIRER.net

Both Houses of Congress on Wednesday signed the bicameral report of the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016.

Senators Loren Legarda, as Senate finance committee chair, Juan Ponce Enrile, Ralph Recto and Bam Aquino attended the bicameral meeting with House members led by appropriations chair Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab.

Ungab said the most significant amendments both Houses of Congress agreed on are the additional P7-billion budget for the implementation of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 2015, as well as the P2.7 billion for the capital outlay of the state universities and colleges.

The budget is set to be ratified next week or before the Christmas break on Dec. 19. Congress is set to resume on Jan.19, 2016.

READ: Bicam OKs proposed P3.002-T budget with P500M for OVP 

The House of Representatives has approved on third reading the proposed four-year P226-billion compensation hike for the government’s 1.53 million civilian and military and uniformed personnel.

The salary standardization would span from 2016 to 2019. It is now pending in the Senate committee level.

READ:  Bill mandating salary hike for nat’l gov’t workers filed at Senate | House moves closer to gov’t pay standardization law 

Congress also agreed on the additional P1.2-billion pension for senior citizens, as well as the P4-billion pension benefits for the country’s World War II veterans, Ungab said.

Congress also approved the bicameral version of the budget which included doubling the Office of the Vice President’s budget from the earlier proposed P230.5 million to P500 million in 2016. Vice President Jejomar Binay is gunning for the presidency next year.

It was Senator Enrile who pushed for the increase in the vice president’s budget next year. Enrile was one of the founding members of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance when he ran for the Senate in 2010.

“With respect to the OVP, I thought the second highest leader of the land deserves better than a miniscule budget regardless whether he is from the opposition or administration,” Enrile said.

During the hearing, Senator Enrile walked out after both chambers ruled out the Senate proposal hiking the budget of the Department of National Defense by P10 billion to P126.6 billion.

The bicameral committee only approved a P1.6-billion increase to P117.5 billion for the defense.

Enrile called the P1-billion increase for air assets a “joke” and asked his colleagues to better scrap it and allocate it to another program.

He said the P10-billion increase which he proposed should be sourced from the Philippine public works and highways and another from the contingency fund of the Office of the President. He said the President’s contingency fund increased by 100 percent.

The P10 billion may be used to improve the country’s air force, said Enrile who is a former defense chief.

“We must admit, we are bereft of anything to secure the well-being of our people… That’s why I have proposed the amount… I respect your decisions but I warned you, you have no time to prepare for the security of this country. I hope that someday, if some of you are still alive, you will look back to this day and say, what if we have approved the P10 billion? Could it have made a difference?” Enrile said.

“I propose that you better scrap the P1 billion and allocate it to whatever program. It’s a joke. It’s a very embarrassing signal this Congress is giving,” he added. IDL