Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Thursday said he expressed his reservation on the P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023 which the Senate unanimously approved on Wednesday night, November 23.

Although he still voted for the approval of House Bill No. 4488, or the General Appropriations Bill (GAA) for 2023, Pimentel noted that the presentation of the budget wasn’t accurate.

The senator said next year’s proposed budget has P588-billion in unprogrammed appropriations that must be included in the bottom line of the budget as announced to the people.

The Senate fiscalizer said the actual increase in the 2023 national budget was actually 11 percent and not four (4) percent. It also contains lump sum allotments and centrally managed items, such as the confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).

“My point is that, let’s combine the programmed and unprogrammed funds this year, and then compare it to the programmed and unprogrammed next year. We can see there is clearly an 11 percent increase, not four percent as what they claim,” Pimentel said.

The Senate will enter into a bicameral conference committee meeting with their counterparts at the House of Representatives on Friday, November 25 to reconcile the differences in the Senate and House’s versions of the 2023 national budget.

Under the Senate’s version of the budget, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio will have P530-million in confidential funds next year. The P30-million would go to the Department of Education (DepEd) which she chairs in a concurrent capacity.

The Senate left intact the Office of the President’s P4.5-billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), blocking Pimentel’s efforts to delete the said lump-sum allocations.

Hontiveros said she is grateful that Sen. Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, and the rest of the members of the Senate, for accepting the minority bloc’s proposed realignment of the DepEd’s confidential funds to support the Health Learning Institutions initiative.

“With the P120- million realigned to the Healthy Learning Institutions program, it would enable DepEd, in partnership with the Department of Health (DOH), to integrate holistic measures to promote healthy behaviors and environments for immunization, mental health, and age- and development-appropriate reproductive health education, especially in last mile schools,” she said.

Pimentel said he eventually agreed with the proposed 2023 national budget even though he has reservations since it has some positive features.

For one, the agriculture sector has a 44 percent increase in its budget for 2023. The Senate also gave priority to the education, social services as, well as the health sector.

“And for the first time we have a budget for the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) for our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs),” Pimentel said.

“Our transport system would hopefully be helped by the budget because of the unprecedented show of support in pouring of funds to the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’’ he added.

The Upper Chamber approved the 2023 national budget on third and final reading with 21 affirmative votes, no negative vote and no abstention on Wednesday night, November 23.