The health sector will get at least P80 billion for its budget next year
with the Senate's passage of the sin tax reform bill, Sen. Franklin
Drilon announced Wednesday.
"We have earmarked P2.3
billion for the health sector under the sin tax reform bill we approved
last night, [so] the health sector will get at least P80 billion in
2013," Drilon said during his sponsorship speech on the proposed
P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013.
On Tuesday, the Senate
approved
on third and final reading the sin tax reform bill, which seeks to
generate almost P40 billion for the state on the first year of its
implementation.
On Wednesday, Drilon said at least
P23.4 billion of the revenue from sin taxes will be added to the
P56.8-billion proposed 2013 budget of the Department of Health.
He
explained that the P23.4 billion will go to the Universal Health Care
Program, which will cover the "PhilHealth premium of workers in the
informal sector, health facilities enhancement program, preventive and
promotive health programs, and policy and regulation standard."
On Tuesday, the Senate also approved the insertion of provisions in the sin tax bill earmarking the following:
-
P10 million to each of the 618 district hospitals operated by local
government units for repair and upgrading of facilities and services;
- P100 million to each of the 16 regional hospitals and 22 medical centers for the same operational and physical upgrading;
- P750 million for the unemployment package of workers and farmers who will be displaced; and
- P250 million to job trainings for tobacco and alcohol workers who wish to start anew
The amendments were introduced by Senator Ralph Recto, who was replaced by Drilon as Senate ways and means committee chair.
2013 budgetBut on Wednesday, Drilon said that no major amendments were introduced in the House-approved 2013 General Appropriations Bill.
He
said the programmed funds will be maintained at the House bill level of
P1,250,780,785,000.00 while the unprogrammed funds will also remain the
same at P117,548,371,000.00. He said the total of new appropriations
will amount to P1,368,329,156,000.00.
According to
Drilon, the biggest share of the budget (34.8 percent) will go to social
services; 25.5 percent will go to economic services; 16.6 percent to
debt-servicing; 17.3 percent to general public services; and 4.5 percent
to defense.
He also said that the Department of
Education will remain the agency with the highest budget allocation with
P292.7 billion, an increase of 22.6 percent from P238.8 billion this
year.
"A P54-billion increase in funding will help
address shortages in education resources such as classrooms, teachers
and textbooks. It will also support the department's K+12 program," he
said.
Following the DepEd are:
Department of Public Works and Highways (DSWD)- P152.9 billion
Department of National Defense (DND) - P121.6 billion
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) - P121.1 billion
Department of Agriculture (DA) - P74.1 billion
Department of Health (DOH) - P56.8 billion
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) - P56.2 billion
Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) - P37.1 billion
Department of Finance (DOF) - P33.2 billion
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) - P23.7 billion
Budget highlightsDrilon
said that incremental funds will specifically be provided to the Bureau
of Immigration for the purchase of five passport-reading machines, as
well as additional funds for repairs and maintenance of the Anti-Money
Laundering Program.
On the other hand, he said
P500,000 will be realigned within the Commission on Elections for the
purchase of a warehouse for the PCOS machines.
The senator also said that among the highlights of the amendments on the special provisions of the budget are:
-
inclusion of “pre-disaster activities” in the utilization of the Quick
Response Fund under the DND's Office of the Secretary and the Office of
the Civil Defense;
- deletion of the special provision
on “Funding Requirements for the filling of Unfilled Positions,” which
violates the provision on fiscal autonomy of Constitutional Offices
including the Judiciary, all of which are allowed by the Constitution to
use their savings in any item of their respective appropriations;
-
inclusion of national roads and bridges, as well as school buildings,
among the infrastructure projects that may be funded under the hard
allocation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF);
-
insertion of a new special provision earmarking P40 million for
research projects on algae research and commercialization, precision
farming, and smart agriculture;
- insertion of a new
special provision earmarking another P40 million for research projects
on disaster science and management, and responsible mining technologies;
- insertion of a new special provision providing P630 million to augment the Project Development and Monitoring Facility; and
-
insertion of a new special provision earmarking P50 million for
research projects and activities for cloud computing and software-as-a
service.
Drilon said that his committee is also
supporting the House proposal specifying that authorized deductions from
an employee’s salary, emoluments or other benefits shall in no case
reduce the employee’s monthly net take home pay to an amount lower than
P5,000.
— BM, GMA News
