Senator Sonny Angara (File photo)
MANILA – Senator Sonny Angara assured on Tuesday that most of the big programs under former president Rodrigo Duterte will be continued through the proposed 2023 National Budget under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, said during his sponsorship speech of the House Bill (HB) 4488 or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2023, that the measure seeks to approve the PHP5.268 trillion wherein PHP1.5979 trillion of it will be in automatic appropriations while the PHP4.259 trillion is composed of programmed new appropriations worth PHP3.671 trillion and PHP588 billion for the unprogrammed.
"Mababatid na, bagama't may bagong administrasyon, karamihan sa malalaking programa at proyekto ng nakaraang gobyerno ay tatakbo pa rin. Hudyat ito na kahit na nagkaroon ng palitan ng may hawak ng poder, walang-tigil ang trabaho ng gobyerno para i-angat ang antas at kalidad ng buhay ng bawat mamayang Pilipino (It can be seen that even with the new administration, most of the big programs and projects of the previous government will continue. This is a sign that even there was a change in the administration, the government did not stop working to improve the quality of life of every Filipino)," Angara said.
The committee, Angara said, did its best to make sure that every item in the proposed 2023 national budget fully aligns with the Marcos administration's Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF).
"Realizing the agenda for prosperity that the Executive has proposed demands that we are cognizant of these challenges and more. Only when we recognize that these systemic difficulties need nothing less than a whole-of-nation approach will be able to achieve any headway," he said.
Angara stressed that it is wrong to think that the national budget is just a simple spreadsheet or only a list of numbers.
"The conventional way of introducing the national budget is to trot out its macroeconomic assumptions, upon which expenditures are anchored. GDP growth, forecast oil prices, inflation, peso-dollar exchange, interest rates do shape the contours of the budget. But, in my years of defending the budget, I have come to distill the other fundamentals that shape and substantiate annual appropriations," he explained.
The lawmaker cited population, prices, projects, and payroll as the factors that contribute a big impact to the proposed budget while being expected to continue addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, the effects of the war in Ukraine, and disaster mitigation.
"Pursigido dapat tayo sa pag-implimenta ng mga reporma. Kaya mahalaga na sa simula pa lamang, nagkaisa na tayo sa unang ipinakitang plano ng administrasyong Marcos (We should be persistent in implementing reforms. That is why it was important that from the start, we were already united with the plans presented by the Marcos administration)," Angara said.
Senators Loren Legarda, Pia Cayetano, and Christopher Lawrence Go made their manifestations to co-sponsor the bill.
The plenary interpellations on the 2023 national budget, Angara said in a previous statement, will start on Wednesday taking up the General Principles, the Department of Budget and Management, Budgetary Support to Government Corporations, Allocation to Local Government Units, Contingent fund, and Joint Legislative-Executive Councils, among others.
After the interpellations, the lawmaker said the Finance Committee will accept and compile the individual amendments from the senators.
Approval of the Senate version of the GAB is expected to be on November 21.
Once approved, Angara said the Bicameral Conference Committee meetings will be held to reconcile the conflicting versions of the House and Senate GABs to reach the target of ratifying the Bicameral Committee Report by December 5. (PNA)
