Metro Manila, Philippines – Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian pushed back against a House leader’s criticism that the Senate slashed funds for social aid programs, saying senators merely followed agencies’ requests instead of adopting congressmen’s proposed increases.
Earlier this week, House Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno expressed concern over what he described as severe cuts to “soft projects” intended to provide aid to poor and marginalized sectors.
The House solon cited the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), and the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP).
Asked about the issue in an online interview on Friday, Dec. 12, Gatchalian said the changes cannot be considered budget cuts.
“Actually hindi namin inislash, inapprove lang namin ‘yung agency request. Kung ano ‘yung sinbumit ng agency ‘yun ang inapprove ng Senate,” he said.
“Kasi nagdagdag ang House, iyan ang hindi namin inadopt kasi may agency budget na,” he added.
[Translation: Actually, we did not slash anything — we simply approved the agency request. Whatever the agency submitted, that’s what the Senate approved. Because the House added funds, and those additions were what we did not adopt since the agencies already had their budgets.]
Gatchalian, however, said senators remain open to discussing the matter during this weekend’s bicameral conference committee meetings, where members of the Senate and House contingents will reconcile differences in their respective versions of the proposed ₱6.793-trillion national budget for next year.
“Admittedly, nung sinubmit yung NEP [National Expenditure Program] that is around July, so from July until now ang dami nang nangyari, maraming bagyo, maraming earthquakes so nag-iba ‘yung situation ngayon,” Gatchalian said.
[Translation: Admittedly, when the National Expenditure Program was submitted in July, many things have happened since then — several typhoons, several earthquakes — so the situation is different now.]
“So pag-uusapan na lang iyan [So we will just discuss that],” he added.
“Constituents nila, constituents din namin [Their constituents are also our constituents]… I think it will all boil down to how it will be justified ,” Gatchalian said.
He also noted that the Senate adopted Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s proposed amendment explicitly prohibiting politicians from taking part in the distribution of social aid.
The bicam meetings will be livestreamed for the first time in budget history to prevent insertions that in the past allegedly enabled anomalous projects and kickbacks.
