Congress to prioritize approval of 2021 national budget

July 27 ------ House Majority Leader and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez said on Sunday that the 301-man Lower Chamber will prioritize the approval of the passage of the 2021 national budget and coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) roadmap for recovery Romualdez said this will likely serve as a “stimulus budget” to revive the economy amid the gripping COVID-19 pandemic. “We expect that the national budget for next year will focus on the health sector and the improvement of its facilities nationwide,” Romualdez said in a statement.

The co-chairperson of the House Defeat COVID-19 Adhoc Committee said they are counting on the spell out in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) the full details of his COVID-19 roadmap for recovery and other priority measures for the Second Regular Session. “It is expected to hear from him the next steps to bring our country forward in the wake of the economic devastation caused by the pandemic. We are faced with a heavy task ahead but we are confident that, under President [Rodrigo] Duterte’s leadership, we are going to survive this ordeal and come out stronger and wiser as a nation,” Romualdez said.

“The SONA is the biggest platform that allows President Duterte to capsulize what his administration has accomplished in the year that passed. For this year’s SONA, I am optimistic that the President will give us a detailed account of what we have done so far in addressing the myriad of problems plaguing the Filipino nation,” he said.

In separate Viber and text messages, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means and co-chairman of the DCC Economic Cluster, and Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers also voiced out the same expectation. “I hope the President sets a clear policy direction on COVID-19 and economic stimulus. The world is learning that you need to do whatever it takes, and spend whatever it takes, to prevent people from falling into abject poverty, and to prevent businesses from completely shuttering,” Salceda said.

Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said he expects the Chief Executive will report on the country’s financial standing in this pandemic, which includes all our foreign loans and our expenditures. “I will expect also the highlighting of the success of the drug war pre-COVID and during COVID, and lastly, I would expect a discussion on the constitutional amendments as part of the President legislative agenda until 2022,” he added.

AKO BICOL partylist Rep. Afredo Garbin Jr. also urged the President to take up in his SONA “a clearer policy direction” in the fight against the COVID pandemic. “We need answers on how to defeat the pandemic, how to create new jobs, how to revive businesses and how to ensure transparency and accountability on the part of the implementers who were given so much budget in response to the pandemic,” he said. Romualdez expressed Lower Chamber’s commitment to “work double time” to pass the national budget and the COVID-19 roadmap for recovery as the Second Regular Session of Congress opens this Monday.

“This is our commitment to support all the efforts of President Duterte to win the COVID-19 battle and ensure the country’s survival from the pandemic,” Romualdez, recalling that, in record time, the House of Representatives approved the 2019 national budget on third and final reading on September 20, 2019 or exactly one month after the August 20, 2019 submission of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). “We will work hard this year to accomplish our mission to duplicate the House’s record time approval of the national budget. We are always committed and inspired to work harder, smarter and more efficiently to expedite and improve the delivery of basic services to the people and defeat COVID-19,” Romualdez said. He said the chamber will continuously deliberate on the SONA priority legislation of the President, which include creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR), which is under the period of interpellations.

The House leader said also included in the list of SONA priorities are: the proposed fire protection modernization program, which is under committee report preparation; creation of the Department of Water Resources and Services and creation of the Water Regulatory Commission, as well as Additional Benefits for Solo Parents are both under committee/technical working group deliberations.

Source: mb.com.ph