BDP budget restoration now with Bicam, Palace

Senate approves P5.024 trillion 2022 national budget

On Dec 6, 2021

Senate Finance Committee chair, Sen. Edfgardo 'Sonny' Angara, who lopped off P24 billion from the proposed BDP budget of P28.1 billion for 2022. The continued funding of the BDP now lies with Pres. Duterte and the Bicameral Conference Committee of Congress to reconcile provisions of next year's national budget. Angara made the decision that only favors the interest of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

THE continued success of the government’s anti-terrorist campaign targeting the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing, the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and their front organizations now lies in the hands of the Bicameral Conference Committee and Malacañang.

This, after the Senate, last December 1, 2021, approved on third and final reading, Committee Report 332 of the Senate Finance Committee or the ‘General Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022.’

Despite appeals from local government units (LGUs) all over the country, various government departments together with those who have benefited– and those who expect to benefit– from the Barangay Development Program (BDP) of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Senate Finance Committee chair, Sen. Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara stood his ground in reducing the proposed P28.1 billion for BDP next year.

Although Angara had agreed to increase to P10 billion of the BDP budget after slashing it down to only P4.11 billion during last week’s final budget deliberations in the Upper Chamber, the paltry increase is widely seen as a triumph of CPP propaganda and influence even in the ranks of lawmakers as the CPP and its violent agenda is the only beneficiary from the decision.

Despite clearly reversing the government’s gains versus the 50-plus years of CPP terrorism thru the NTF-ELCAC and the BDP, Angara claimed the 2022 national budget would help address the country’s 2-year problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“May pagbabago man sa mga detalye at mga halaga, hindi naman nagbago ang pinakaadhikain ng ating panukalang budget, na magsilbi siyang pangunahing paraan para ipagpatuloy ang pag-anhon ng bansa mula sa pandemiya,” Angara said.

Under the approved Senate version of the 2022 national budget, the DOH will receive a total budget of P226.7 billion, which is much higher than the 182.67 billion that was appropriated under the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) passed by the House of Representatives.

As the composition showed, only Sen. Go and Sen. Dela Rosa can be relied upon to push for the restoration or further increase in the BDP budget as most of their colleagues in the contingent are one with Angara in following the CPP line of either defunding or abolishing the BDP and the NTF-ELCAC.

Some of the increases in relation to the appropriations made in the GAB, include items related to the pandemic response: COVID-19 Benefits and Compensation for Healthcare Workers; COVID-19 Human Resource for Health Emergency Hiring; COVID-19 Laboratory Network Commodities; The DOH’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Program; Operations for our national reference laboratories like the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine; and the hiring and training of 25,000 contact tracers.

Following the budget’s approval by the Senate, President Duterte, on Friday, December 3, 2021, during a speech in Zamboanga City, said he wanted the over P24 billion BDP budget taken away by Angara and other pro-CPP senators, restored.

“Now Congress, I don’t understand it. Pwede ba palitan ninyo ‘yung mga senador?

Wala talaga eh. Sila ‘yung mga naga…. Ito gituli nila,” (they cut the budget),” Pres. Duterte said.

“So kailangan ma-restore ‘yan,” he added (see related story in this issue).

To resolve the impasse, Pres. Duterte can exercise his veto power over some items in the budget so the amount can be put back to the BDP budget.

Following the approval of the Senate version of the national budget, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III named the Senate contingent in the bicameral conference committee to be led by Angara.

The Senate members are: Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri; senators Cynthia A. Villar; Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa; Pia S. Cayetano; Sherwin T. Gatchalian; Christopher Lawrence “Bong” T. Go; Richard J. Gordon; Risa Hontiveros; Imee R. Marcos; Joel J. Villanueva; Nancy S. Binay; and Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares.

As the composition showed, only Sen. Go and Sen. Dela Rosa can be relied upon to push for the restoration or further increase in the BDP budget as most of their colleagues in the contingent are one with Angara in following the CPP line of either defunding or abolishing the BDP and the NTF-ELCAC.