The Budget department on Tuesday submitted to the House of Representatives the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for next year.
As with the two Bayanihan measures, the 2021 budget is focused on the government’s continuing response to the Covid-19 crisis, and the House has promised to pass it in record time.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado handed over to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano the budget proposal, which is 9.9- percent higher than the P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget.
Cayetano says the House aims to approve the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act "in record time."
"We will try to finish the budget before the end of September—a very ambitious schedule—to send it right away to the Senate because we in the House hope that, for the first time in history, we can have the President sign the budget maybe late November or mid-November as a sign of unity between the legislature and the administration," Cayetano said.
He said all members of the House, including those from the opposition, “will be given ample and equal time to scrutinize the money measure.
"We will be very transparent, and the members of the opposition will be given be the first copies of the budget. We will listen to them first and give them more time in the budget deliberations to make this budget a product of the whole of Congress, not only the pro-administration bloc."
Avisado, in his speech during the budget bill submission ceremony, said the 2021 National Expenditure Program "will sustain government efforts and effectively respond to the Covid-19 pandemic by focusing on government spending on improving our healthcare systems, ensuring food security, creating more jobs by investing on labor-intensive projects, enabling a digital government and economy, as well as helping communities cope in these trying times.
"Hence, the theme of the FY 2021 NEP is 'Reset, Rebound, and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability’."
The education sector will get the biggest chunk of the budget, with a total of P754.4 billion for the Department of Education, state universities and colleges, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
The second biggest share will be given to the Department of Public Works and Highways with a P667.3- billion allocation, followed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government with P246.1 billion, the Department of National Defense with P209.1 billion, and the Department of Health with P203.1 billion.
Also in the list of the top 10 agencies with the highest budget allocations are the Department of Social Welfare and Development with P171.2 billion, the Department of Transportation with P143.6 billion, the Department of Agriculture with P66.4 billion, the Judiciary with P43.5 billion, and the Department of Labor and Employment with P27.5 billion.
"The imposition of community quarantine has had a significant impact on the economic and social activities in our country while our healthcare sector continues to struggle against the pressure of the pandemic," Avisado said.
"We, in the government, must be able to effectively respond and with the fiscal year 2021 NEP, we hope to fully address the impact of the health crisis and accelerate our economic recovery.”
ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Go Yap, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said "the House will carefully scrutinize the proposed 2021 national budget according to the direction that President Rodrigo Duterte wants to take.
"We intend to sustain our economic growth and build on our previous gains while facing the pandemic head on. This day symbolizes our mission to buckle down to work as public servants.”