Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon has suggested giving budget incentives in 2022 to state universities and colleges (SUCs) and public schools that would reopen face-to-face classes.

During the first day of plenary debates on the proposed P5.024-trillion 2022 budget on Wednesday, November 10, the veteran lawmaker said SUCs and public schools should be given access to the P3.5-billion fund meant to help educational institutions retrofit their facilities for holding face-to-face classes. 

Drilon appealed to Senate committee on finance chairman Sonny Angara that the pilot run for physical classes “will not bring us anywhere” and the government must do more.

“What I’m asking the committee to examine is to incentivize the opening of classes depending on compliance with certain conditions. For example, if the locality has an Alert Level 1, shouldn’t we give discretion and authority to education officials in that locality to open classes with appropriate safeguards?” said Drilon.

Angara then said that in the current version of the 2022 budget, SUCs have been alloted P1 billion while the Department of Education has P2.5 billion to help prepare for the conduct of face-to-face classes amid the coronavirus pandemic next year. They would have access to these funds whether or not physical classes would push through in 2022. 

Drilon still insisted on his proposal, citing the well-being of students struggling with the remote setup for their classes. “I am concerned that the children are already deprived of two years of actual classroom experience. And on the other hand, our support for the needs of our students on a virtual education system is very pathetic,” he said.

Angara then said the matter can be discussed further when senators are scheduled to debate on the proposed budget of the education sector.

The proposed P5.024-trillion budget for 2022 has reached the Senate plenary, marking the start of lengthy debates on the funds allotted for all government departments and agencies.

On late Tuesday night, November 9, Senate committee on finance chairman Sonny Angara endorsed for plenary approval Committee Report No. 332, which contains the proposed 2022 national budget which he described as a “COVID recovery budget,” with senators moving to realign billions of funds to finance key pandemic response programs next year.

Angara said senators have augmented the Department of Health’s (DOH) proposed budget to P226 billion, more than twice its current budget at P101 billion. This includes P16.25 billion dedicated for the purchase of COVID-19 booster shots and P51 billion in programmed funds for the special risk allowance and other benefits of health workers.

The proposed 2022 budget would also allot P896.4 million for the construction of storage facilities for COVID-19 vaccines, while another P2.48 billion has been set aside to hire more vaccinators to administer COVID-19 jabs in provinces lacking manpower. 

Marathon debates in the Senate plenary on the 2022 budget are set to begin on Wednesday, November 10, at 10 am. 

Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara says under the ‘sweep’ provision any unspent funds still with the PS-DBM by end-2023 would be returned to the National Treasury.

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Senate finance panel chair Sonny Angara says part of the NTF-ELCAC’s slashed budget would instead fund health workers’ COVID-19 benefits in 2022.

Read more.

Senators said on Thursday, September 16, that they would back the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) request to get an additional P3.8 billion in its proposed 2022 budget to support consular operations both in the Philippines and abroad. 

The requested amount is on top of the agency’s proposed 2022 budget, amounting to P21 billion. This is P2 billion less than the 2021 budget of P22.6 billion. 

DFA Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Management Myla Macahilig told lawmakers that the P3.8 billion included funds for the following, among others:

● operation of 10 temporary offsite passport services
● posts opened in 2019 that no longer received funding in 2022
● three posts that were supposed to open in 2020
● DFA’s retrofitting project
● 2022 budget of the Office of Undersecretary for Strategic Communication and Research
● the Department Legislative Liaison Unit, etc

Senator Richard Gordon, who presided over the DFA’s budget hearing, supported the calls of Senators Imee Marcos and Aquilino Pimentel III to increase the DFA’s 2022 budget. 

“Whatever they’re asking for will come back to us by way of passport income, consular fees, and all that…. If I had my own way, all these things that you’re asking [for] you’d get, and probably more. I’m ready to do that…. I think they need it and we will support it,” Gordon said. 

Senators took turns grilling Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) officials about the 1,479 contract of service (COS) workers the agency had hired, which the lawmakers said are probably trolls.

“You’re saying these are not trolls, so I would like to see their names, their address, their educational attainment, their job descriptions,” said Senator Franklin Drilon on Thursday, September 16, during a hearing on the PCOO’s proposed 2022 budget.

Senator Nancy Binay, meanwhile, asked for these COS workers’ daily time record, to see if they report directly to the PCOO Proper.

Lawmakers pointed out that it was unusual for the PCOO to have so many COS workers when it has been unable to fill many plantilla or regular positions.

“May we also know what are the projects and job descriptions of these employees that are so technical and so specialized that no permanent government employee can possibly perform them?” wondered Senator Imee Marcos.

PCOO Undersecretary Kris Ablan acknowledged the discrepancy and said that of the 88 vacant regular positions, they have already filled up 23.

Senator Franklin Drilon questioned the urgency of projects being pursued by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) – including a Visayas Media Hub and Government Strategic Communications Academy, given the more pressing problems of the pandemic.

Drilon, during a Senate hearing on the PCOO’s proposed 2022 budget, described the projects as “propaganda apparatus” and “academy for propaganda,” respectively.

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The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is seeking an increase in its proposed 2022 budget to further strengthen efforts to prevent and investigate abuses in the Philippines, including those under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Read more here.

As of August 31, 2021: