MALACAÑANG lauded on Friday the passage of the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for next year from the Senate, calling the initiative an important step in executing the principle of good governance.
President Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said its final approval is a crucial step towards timely implementation of the national budget on the first day of 2016, same that happened during the last five years.
Coloma made the remark after the Senate approved the budget on third and final reading on Thursday with 14 affirmative votes and one negative vote. Only Senator Aquilino Pimentel III voted against the budget.
The sectors of education and infrastructure got the biggest share in the budget, with the Department of Education receiving an allocation of P411.89 billion, a 28 percent, or 90-billion increase from its P321-billion budget in 2015.
The Department of Public Works and Highways, on the other hand, received the second largest share in the budget, with an allocation of P382.42.
The Department of National Defense came in third with P126.64 billion, followed by the Department of Health with P124.76 billion, and the Department of Interior and Local Government with P124.26 billion.
According to Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate version of the 2016 national budget “aims to proactively address the impacts of climate change and disasters in the country and promote inclusive and sustainable growth.”
Senate President Franklin Drilon said that with the budget’s approval in the Senate, lawmakers from both houses of the Congress will devote their time next week for the bicameral conference committee meetings on the 2016 budget.
He, likewise, expressed confidence that the budget will be signed by President Benigno Aquino III before the year ends.
“We expect to submit the budget to the President by December 14. That’s our target date so that the President will have a week to 10 days to review the budget and see whether he will exercise his line-item veto as he would traditionally,” Drilon said.
As mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the educational sector received the highest budget priority.
“The DepEd’s budget increased by 28 percent of its budget for 2015 because the implementation of the senior high school curriculum under the K-12 program begins next year,” Legarda said.
DepEd’s P411.89-billion budget includes allocation for hiring of additional teachers and school feeding programs. DepEd also allocated P82.3 billion “for the construction of 47,553 classrooms and technical-vocational laboratories.”
The Senate version of the proposed 2016 budget of the 113 state universities and colleges across the country also increased by P4.27 billion. According to Legarda, the funds will be used for construction of structures, acquisition of equipment and scholarship grants, among others.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), meanwhile, received a P107 billion budget for next year. Of this amount, P48 million is allocated for the Council for the Welfare of Children, P44.62 million for the Inter-Country Adoption Board, P111 million for the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, P44.28 million for the National Council on Disability Affairs and P87.47 million for the National Youth Commission.
The Senate also supported the House’s allocation of P4.77 billion for the payment of the total administrative disability (TAD) pension for surviving spouses of deceased World War II veterans, along with partial payments for TAD pension for living post-war veterans who are at least 80 years of age as of 2016.
According to Drilon, the Senate will soon prioritize the proposed Salary Standardization Law IV (SSL IV), which will define the new and upgraded salary scale for each salary grade of all government employees to be implemented in a four-year period.
“We also want to pass the SSL IV within December so that in January it will be implemented with the funds coming from the authorization in the 2016 national budget,” Drilon said, noting that in the 2016 budget, P57 billion have already been allocated for the proposed wage hike.
If the SSL IV is passed along with the 2016 national budget, government employees can already expect higher wages by January 2016.