Duterte’s Second to the Last Budget Has Been Approved by the Lawmakers

The lawmakers sealed their agreement of the second to the last budget of the Duterte administration next year, plotting it on course for a timely passage that is crucial to ensure that new pandemic recovery initiatives are immediately supported.

House and Senate budget leaders in a briefing that the P4.5-trillion proposed spending plan was accepted by their respective contingents, up 9.9 percent from P4.1 trillion this year.

The establishment of the bill will continue in both chambers and after which the measure will be ready for signature by President Rodrigo Duterte. Before the bill lapses into law by itself, he has 30 days to do so. The approval marks another fulfilled pledge made in Congress by Duterte’s allies to speed up the passage of the budget and ensure that similar delays from 2019, which have caused devastating economic harm, are prevented.

The 2021 budget approaching enactment is arming them with another fiscal stimulus tool for economic managers. The budget is devised to work along with the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Businesses (CREATE) and Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) bills in enlivened government ability to drive the economy out of recession.

Similarly, the Bicameral Conference Committee, consisting of select members of the House and Senate, approved FIST, which aims to reduce the burden of bad bank loans. Develop is also expected to be finalized to eliminate corporate taxes. A P70 billion allocation for the procurement of coronavirus vaccines is among the main components of the most recent approved budget version, if and when it becomes available next year.

The issuance, however, falls under the non-programmed fund which ensures that appropriations can only be tapped if and when the revenue goals are met or by foreign loan proceeds. Morever, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III further said earlier that in order to immunize 60 million Filipinos, the government needs P73 billion, which will be funded by multilateral agencies.