House to make changes in 2020 budget

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will make changes in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year to provide the necessary funds for education, health, electrification and agriculture.

“These are the only realignments we will introduce when we pass the budget (on second reading) on Friday. None of these will be pork. Our mantra is still no pork, no parking, no delay,” Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters yesterday.

By “no pork, no parking,” Cayetano was referring to hidden pork barrel funds and other appropriations. He said the plan is to increase the budget for buying rice farmers’ palay produce from P7 billion to P10 billion.

“We also want to know from agriculture officials the programs accompanying the Rice Tariffication Law that will directly benefit farmers,” he said.

In the case of education, Cayetano said funding for the construction of classrooms has suffered a big reduction due to the huge backlog this year and in previous years.

“We will check how this will affect the K-12 program,” he added.

As for health services, he said the House would want the Department of Health to focus on primary health care, vowing that the chamber will provide the necessary funds for the expanded or universal health care program.

Cayetano also revealed that the proposed 2020 national budget allots only P1 billion to energize communities that have not been reached by the government’s electrification program.

“We want to know how much is needed to complete this program in three years, if completion is not possible in one year or two years,” he said.

Congressmen Presley de Jesus of Philreca, Sergio Dagooc of Apec, Godofredo Guya of Recodoba, Adriano Ebcas of Ako Padayon and their party-list leader, Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman, are asking the House to allocate at least P28.5 billion over three years starting next year to energize the remaining barangay communities still without electricity.

The lawmakers represent millions of members of rural electric cooperatives, which are the government’s arm in energizing the entire country, saying 19,000 sitios, where 13 million Filipinos live, have not been reached by the rural electrification program.

Romero said the P28.5 billion is the cost of supplying the 19,000 sitios with electricity at P1.5 million per sitio.

“We have to help millions of our people living in remote communities in darkness. We have to empower them by providing them with electricity,” he said.

De Jesus said half of the 13 million Filipinos still without electricity, or 6.5 million, are located in Mindanao.