MANILA – The proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021, which is seen to drive the country’s pandemic response and recovery efforts, has been approved by the bicameral conference committee on Wednesday.
The panel, led by House of Representatives appropriations committee chair Eric Yap and Senate finance committee chair Sonny Angara, reconciled the final version of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill in their final meeting.
Yap said that Institutional amendments were done to ensure proper national government response to the pandemic through the purchase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and provision of conditional cash transfer in communities.
The House initially raised allocation for COVID-19 vaccines to P8 billion. The Senate added P75 billion in unprogrammed appropriations or allotments that may be used for COVID-19 response, dependent on the availability of government revenues.
Yap added that some infrastructure projects were also reallocated to government programs that can be finished within 2021, including those intended for hospitals, health facilities and equipment.
Meanwhile, the budget heads of the Senate and the House of Representatives confirmed that Congress is planning to extend the validity of two spending bills to ensure that delayed COVID-19 response projects would still be rolled out.
Congress is planning to extend the 2020 budget until June or December 2021, and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) until March or mid-2021, according to Angara.
“The 2020 GAA (General Appropriations Act) has a lot of projects that were delayed because of the lockdown, of quarantine so additional time is needed,” Angara said in a press conference.
“Regarding the [COVID-19] vaccine, ‘yung P8 billion [fund] nasa Bayanihan 2 so that expires on Dec. 19. Kapag hindi natin in-extend ‘yung Bayanihan 2, magre-revert din ‘yung pera [back to the National Treasury],” Angara said.
Under the law, annual national budgets would expire at the end of every year while emergency measures – like the Bayanihan 2 – would lose its validity once Congress adjourns session.
Once these spending laws expire, funds that were unspent have to be reverted to the National Treasury, and Congress would have to craft another law to authorize the executive branch to tap these funds for specific projects.
As of Oct. 29, the Department of Budget and Management has released P78 billion, about half of the P165-billion funding the government is authorized to spend under the Bayanihan 2./PN
