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Friday, March 29, 2024

House committee starts hearings on 2021 national budget

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The House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations will begin today, Sept. 4, its first set of budget hearings on the Palace-proposed P4.506 trillion national budget for 2021.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Eric Yap of ACT-CIS, will conduct its deliberations on the money measure with the Development Budget Coordination Committee, which is composed of the Department of Budget and Management, National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Finance, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Deputy Speaker for Finance and Camarines Sur Luis Raymund Villafuerte said a maximum of 50 attendees will be present physically in Congress, including representatives from each agency to be chosen by their respective departments.

The rest of the House members and the national agencies’ officers will join the deliberations via teleconferencing apps like Zoom, he said. 

“The leadership really has to make sure that aside from being transparent and deliberative, the hearings must be safe. That’s why the number of people present has to be limited, but at the same time it does not mean that those participating through Zoom cannot participate. However, if there are issues in which they must be personally present, they can be summoned,” said Villafuerte.

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Meanwhile, with the House focusing on COVID-19 response and recovery, Villafuerte urged the public to participate directly through social media since the issue is of concern to every Filipino citizen.

“It is the first time that we are conducting a budget deliberation hearing under the new normal. So we’re encouraging all sectors to give out their ideas because the priority of the Speaker (Alan Peter Cayetano) for this Congress is to focus on COVID response and recovery,” Villafuerte said.

He said that while the House leadership is yet to finalize the mechanics and protocols for the people’s direct participation in the budget hearings, the public can leave their comments on the House’s official Facebook page, “House of the Representatives of the Philippines,” during the live stream of the hearings. The lawmakers will then be able to read them and provide answers, he said.

Villafuerte said the chamber is also looking into the possibility of creating a separate message board and a new social media account to accommodate more participants.

Cayetano earlier said passing the national budget, which aims for inclusive growth after the pandemic, is a “bigger sign of unity” among the members of the House of Representatives.

“During this time of crisis, it’s important for us to talk about how our kababayans will survive, but as House of the People, it is more important for us to discuss how our constituents will face the post-pandemic world. Will they have food on their table? Will they have jobs to return to? Will they still have homes after the pandemic? These are the problems we wish to address when we start our budget hearings,” Cayetano said.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. assured the public that members of the chamber’s minority bloc would thoroughly review the budget to ensure that funds go where they are most needed and financial resources are not wasted on unnecessary items.

Abante said out that if the theme for the 4.506 trillion-peso 2021 national budget is “Reset, Rebound, and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability,” when it comes to the budget deliberations, the minority will be guided by the theme “Review, Reassess, and Reallocate.”

“Let me stress that while we are grateful to the Executive for preparing this budget and we respect the work they have put into it, we as legislators are duty-bound to review the budget, reassess the priorities and line items, if necessary, and reallocate funds to other programs and projects that we believe require additional financial resources,” said Abante.

“This does not mean we will not cooperate with efforts to pass the budget as fast as humanly possible,” said the legislator from Manila.

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