go through Kenneth Christian L. Basilio,,,,, reporter
A House committee approved the 2026 P679.3-100 million miles budget bill Tuesday, bringing massive spending plans to the field after 37 days of committee-level review.
The House Appropriations Committee passed a budget adjustment on Monday to a subcommittee that redirected about P255 billion of flood control funds originally allocated to the Public Works and Highways (DPWH) (DPWH) on Monday, mainly for the education, health and social welfare sectors.
Fifty-four members voted for the bill, while six members voted against it. Four members abstained.
“We promised we only changed pesos 255 billion…we didn’t hide anything, we changed nothing,” Rep. Mikaela Angela B. Suansing, Nueva Ecija, who is in charge of the House Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers.
The budget process has changed significantly this year after last year’s controversy over what is called insertion in spending plans. The amendment to the Budget Act was previously handled by an opaque “small committee” composed of select members of Congress.
The budget team added P26.5 billion to the education sector’s budget, providing P2.5 billion for new classroom construction, while school feeding plans, etc. are P1.88 billion.
Legislators also raised the health sector’s budget by P2.28 billion, of which P26.73 billion will be directed to the agency’s medical assistance program for poor patients and P2.4 billion to fund the construction of major government hospitals across the country.
About Pes 60 billion passed to Philhealth to the government’s subsidies to the national health insurance company.
Members of Congress have revised the proposed budget of the Ministry of Social Welfare to increase pesos 35.91 billion. Decomposition, it will allocate 32.06 billion pesos to poor Filipinos to provide emergency cash assistance and 3 billion pesos for their sustainable livelihoods program.
They also re-save P3.96 billion to the proposed budget of the Ministry of Agriculture. These include P8.89 billion Farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities of P7.69 billion and P7.000 cash assistance to farmers and Fisherfolk.
Ms Suansing said last month that lawmakers expect the Budget Bill to clear the second reading by October and to perform third readings when the meeting resumes in November.
Members of Congress have 10 days to pass the 10-day spending plan, and had a one-month break before Congress recession on October 3, which is scheduled to resume on November 9.
