House augments AFP, PNP budgets by P2 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has augmented the proposed budgets for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) next year by P2 billion to modernize their facilities.

In the 2020 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) transmitted to the Senate last Tuesday, the House realigned funds and added P1 billion each to the appropriations of the AFP and the PNP.

The additional funding will boost the P184.9 billion and P189 billion that the PNP and AFP, respectively, will get next year.

“This is first time in history that we are putting an item for camp development fund – P1 billion for the PNP and P1 billion also for the AFP,” Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said.

Cayetano explained that while there are appropriations already in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 for certain police and military camps, “we want the camp development program to be a five- to 10-year program so that our military and police could plan it well.”

The additional funds for the AFP and the PNP will come from the P9.5-billion total realignments proposed by the House in the GAB.

The amount was taken from the P5.7-billion budget of the Commission on Elections for next year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls set to be postponed, and the P3.7-billion funding of the Department of Public Works and Highways for deferred road right-of-way projects.

Meanwhile, the House clarified that there was no P456-million cut in the proposed budget of the Philippine General Hospital for 2020 as claimed by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.

House public accounts committee chair and Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor said the chamber, in fact, even augmented the PGH’s budget by P500 million in its institutional amendments in the GAB.

“There was no such cut in the budget of the PGH made by Congress. What I know is we even increased the budget of the PGH,” he told reporters in a weekly forum.

Defensor further clarified that the House added P500 million to the budget of the country’s biggest public hospital – not just P200 million as reported by another newspaper.