Senate, House sign bicam report on proposed 2022 budget
The Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday signed the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022.
Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee panel, said both houses of Congress agreed to increase the proposed budget of the Department of Health for next year to at least P20-billion to P30-billion.
Angara said the DOH’s budget was increased to also include funds that would finance the special risk allowances of health workers and for the procurement of vaccines and booster shots.
The Senate finance committee earlier appropriated P226-billion to the DOH.
“The DOH (budget), I think is up by P20, P30-billion or over what the President submitted, because maraming kulang dun (it was lacking),” Angara said in an interview with reporters.
“I think dinagdagan namin sa boosters, tapos sa testing meron din (We also added funds for boosters, and also for the COVID-19 testing),” he added.
The bicam report also allocated funds to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for COVID-19 testing for those looking for employment.
“Kasi hindi natin masabi kung gaano kabilis, gaano kabagal yung recovery natin sa darating na taon. So dapat handa tayo either way. Prepared for the worst, or prepared for the best case scenario na mag-open up na tayo (Because we cannot say how fast or how slow our economic recovery would be next year. So we should be ready either way, prepared for the worst or prepared for the beast case scenario that we already open up),” he stressed.
He also said lawmakers ensured that the education sector still got the highest allocation in next year’s proposed budget.
“Education is still the highest. You’re talking about P800-billion for the education sector but the health sector got a big increase also this year,” Angara said.
The bicameral conference report is expected to be ratified this afternoon.