By BEN R. ROSARIO
IT took the House Committee on Appropriations a mere 10 minutes to approve the proposed 2019 budget of the Office of the President and five minutes more to agree on the Office of the Vice President’s allocation for next year.
But unlike the five-minute difference, the proposed 2019 budget for the nation’s most powerful offices are billions apart and glaring separated by plus and minus signs.
The panel approved almost instantaneously a Php 6,773,939,000 budget for President Duterte’s office, a Php 742,939,000 or 12.32 percent increase from the expenditure schedule of Php 6,031,010,000.
On the other hand, Vice President Leni Robredo, who was present in yesterday’s budget hearing, was granted a Php 455,853,000 budget for 2019, which is far lower than her request of Php 557,627,000, and a Php 95.137-million drop from the current allocation of Php 550,990,000.
Robredo said the budgetary reduction will have a negative impact on her office’s livelihood program for the poor and the countryside.
Lending support to the OP budget hearing was former President now House Speaker Gloria M. Arroyo who joined the panel’s quick deliberation.
Nearly all Liberal Party lawmakers also came to the budget deliberation in a show of solid support for Robredo’s personal defense of the OVP budget.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, who led the OP’s defense of its 2019 allocation, said the biggest expenditure increase is for maintenance and other operating expenses at Php 517,411,000 or an 11.09 percent increase from the Php 4,666,661,000 allocation this year. The 2019 MOOE proposal is Php 5,184,072,000.
Personnel service expenditures were also adjusted from Php 994,159,000 this year to Php 1,078,204,000 in 2019 or a Php 84,045,000 hike.
