The House of Representatives rechanneled P115.82 billion from the executive’s spending plan, Bataan Rep. Albert ‘Abet’ Garcia said on Monday, revising the previous P116.32 billion figure that a special panel of lawmakers reportedly finalized last month.
Garcia, the senior vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, revealed that the realignments were about P500 million lower than originally reported by the Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc).
‘The more accurate figure is P115.89 billion,’ he said in a media briefing, adding that most of the amendments were from agency requests.
Garcia’s remarks come as lawmakers aim to quell concerns that the BARSc amended more than what was reported out by the select panel of lawmakers from majority political parties and the minority bloc.
Independent calculations by the People’s Budget Coalition pegged the House’s overall budget realignments at nearly P200 billion, flagging that most of the increases were drawn from foreign-assisted projects.
Garcia said that amendments approved by the BARSc came from agency requests, ranging from projects not included in the executive’s budget proposal or corrections for line items with incorrect details.
‘Most of the amendments came from the agencies or those missed out by the ‘bottom-up budgeting’,’ he said in mixed English and Filipino. ‘So that’s needs-based on the ground.’