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| The PH senate will not give an additional budget to the Department of Health even though health workers are protesting. (Photo from Inquirer website) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA, Philippines — Leaders of the House of Representatives assured President Rodrigo Duterte and the senators on Saturday that they would submit the P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 to the Senate on time but indicated that the bigger problem was the lack of additional funding that some agencies like the Department of Health (DOH) were seeking.
Malacañang on Saturday pushed the House to submit the budget by Oct. 28 to the Senate to give senators “ample time” to go through it and for Congress to approve it early enough for the President’s signature.“The Chief Executive has in many occasions articulated the importance of the timely passage of the budget, given that we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic where we need resources to fund government interventions to mitigate the adverse effects of the virus,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.
In a phone interview on Saturday, ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap, the House appropriations committee chair, assured the Palace that the Senate would receive the “soft copy” of House Bill No. 7727, or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), on Oct. 28. “The Oct. 28 date is fine, it’s still safe,” Yap said.
