The House of Representatives (HOR) approved on third and final reading the proposed P4.506 trillion national budget for 2021.
After four days of special deliberations preceded by delays, a total of 267 legislators on October 16 voted in favor of House Bill No. 7727, or the 2021 General Appropriations Bill, certified as urgent by the administration. Only six voted against the measure and no one abstained.
The 2021 budget is 10% higher than this year’s P4.1 trillion budget.
The agencies which received the biggest allocations are:
- Department of Education, P754.4 billion
- Department of Public Works and Highways, P667.3 billion
- Department of the Interior and Local Government, P246.1 billion
- Department of National Defense, P209.1 billion
- Department of Health (DOH), P203.1 billion
- Department of Social Welfare and Development, P171.2 billion
- Department of Transportation, P143.6 billion
- Department of Agriculture, P66.4 billion
- Judiciary, P43.5 billion
- Department of Labor and Employment, P27.5 billion
The DOH budget includes an initial P2.5 billion for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines next year.
The Lower House has created a small committee to receive and resolve all individual amendments to the budget.
Lawmakers have until October 19 to submit their amendments.
HOR Appropriations Committee chair Eric Yap said they will transmit to Senate a soft copy of the bill by October 28, a few days before the Upper House resumes session on November 9. The Senate is resuming earlier than the scheduled November 16 to give senators time for deliberations and bicameral conferences.
A printed version of the proposed budget measure is required for transmission to the Senate, but Yap assured the soft copy would be the same as the one for printing by the National Printing Office.
