The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed on second reading a P7.2-trillion spending bill that would fund the government through next year.
Lawmakers approved on second reading via voice vote House Bill No. 10858, the 7,408-page spending measure detailing a record national budget to fund state operations, government salaries, infrastructure projects and key social services for 2027.
Though the timing of the vote means the House will miss its self-imposed Friday deadline for final passage due to a mandatory three-day cooling-off rule between legislation approval.
And in seeking to avoid a procedural delay, House leaders had requested the Senate’s permission to extend their legislative calendar to Monday next week so the lower chamber can formally pass the budget bill on final reading.
The floor adopted amendments reallocating around P116 billion from the executive’s draft budget, following recommendations from a select committee of ranking lawmakers to bolster flagship state assistance projects and infrastructure.
The People’s Budget Coalition, a civil group monitoring budget developments, said in a statement last week that ‘by our count, P99.41 billion of that, or 85 percent, went to items we tag as red flags,’ referring to the amendments made by the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee (BARSc).
The bulk of rechanneled funding were streamed towards programs that rely on ‘politician referrals’ and ‘infrastructure insertions with opaque project plans,’ it said.
A chunk of the realigned budget includes P8.12 billion in additional funding for the education cluster and P20.86 billion for the agriculture sector. Lawmakers also lodged an extra P11.49 billion for infrastructure build up under the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The Department of Transportation also gained an additional P2.35 billion in realigned funding to cover public transit service contracting and the Edsa busway project, programs that received zero funding in the initial budget proposal.
Social safety nets also received a significant bump under the amendments, as lawmakers directed an additional P25 billion to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s crisis assistance program and an extra P24.96 billion to the Department of Health’s indigent patient relief program.