Vice President Leni Robredo is asking for a P679.74 million budget for her office in 2021, lower than its current budget of P708.01 million.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) submitted last week to Congress the P4.506 trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for next year anchored on programs to boost the country‘s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2021 budget proposal, with the theme “Reset, Rebound, and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability,” is higher by 10 percent compared to this year’s national budget.
This serves as the basis for the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which will become the General Appropriations Act (GAA) once signed by President Duterte.
“The OVP's budget for 2020 per the GAA is P708.01 million, which is P28.28 million more than DBM's recommended budget for 2021. Our original proposal was P723.39 million,” Robredo’s chief of staff Philip Dy told Manila Bulletin.
Based on its proposed budget, Robredo’s office has requested P117.28 million for personnel services and P558.80 for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), while P3.66 million will go to capital outlays.
Under the MOOE, the Office of the Vice President’s allocation for 2021 decreased by P28.73 million from P587.53 million this year.
“In the proposed budget, (there is) no specific reference to COVID-19 programs but for this purpose, we can use our Financial Assistance/Subsidy account, similar to how we've funded some of the COVID-19 programs this year,” Dy said.
The OVP has conducted its own relief work under its flagship Angat Buhay program to help the government in the fight against COVID-19.
The Philippines is currently on its worst economic downturn in nearly three decades as it suffered a recession during the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic.