Senate ratifies P3-T 2016 budget

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate ratified yesterday the proposed P3.002-trillion budget for next year.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the Senate finance committee, expressed elation over the approval of the budget.

Legarda said she is confident President Aquino would be able to sign the 2016 budget into law before Christmas.

She has introduced provisions in the 2016 budget that would ensure the integration of disaster and climate resilience, environmental and heritage conservation, and sustainability in the programs of various government agencies.

Critical public infrastructure must be designed and built to be resilient to strong earthquakes, typhoons, flood and other extreme weather events, she said.

In retrofitting bridges and other public infrastructure facilities, Legarda said the government should give priority to areas considered highly vulnerable to seismic activity.

On the education front, Congress added P50 million for the preservation/restoration of Gabaldon school buildings, which are considered national heritage sites. The Philippine High School for the Arts is given an additional P25.468 million for capital outlays.

Among the highlights of the budget is the strong support for quality education with the increased allocation for the Department of Education (DepEd) for the implementation of the K-12 program, as well as for the construction of classrooms and hiring of additional teachers. Total budget of DepEd is P411.905 billion.

The University of the Philippines was given an additional amount for the construction of buildings and gymnasiums as well as for funding support for the Philippine General Hospital.

The Philippine Normal University was also provided an extra budget for modernization while the rest of the state universities and colleges received additional funding for their “Tulong Dunong” program, construction of academic buildings and procurement of equipment. The SUCs’ total budget is P47 billion.

For the first time, Legarda noted that the national budget now includes funding for the payment of the total administrative disability (TAD) pension for surviving spouses of deceased World War II veterans and partial payment for TAD for living post-war veterans at least 80 years old as of 2016.

An amount was also provided for personal services for Renewable Energy and Management Bureau, Legal Services and Compliance Service.

In a previous statement, Legarda said permanent evacuation centers with green design would be constructed in every region starting next year.

“We have been used to designating schools as evacuation centers in times of disasters and this is not healthy because there are instances when it takes weeks or months before calamity victims are able to go back to their homes or provided with new shelters. In these instances, our children’s educational development suffers because of the delayed resumption of classes,” Legarda explained.

“This is why we see the need to build or designate permanent evacuation centers so that we limit the use of classrooms as such. But, of course, our end goal is still to limit the need to evacuate people by ensuring that human settlements are located in safe and disaster-resilient areas,” she added.