The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Monday submitted the proposed P5.024 trillion 2022 national budget.
This is the largest national budget proposal in the history of the country.
Funding will include booster shots and other pandemic response needs.
There is also a budget to help those in need inside and outside the country.
There is also a budget for education and agriculture.
About P345 billion has been set aside for the COVID-19 response but despite the pandemic, health is still not the biggest expenditure in the 2022 national budget.
The budgets of DepEd, DPWH, and DILG are even bigger.
“Ang health, kung titingnan mo ang budget, pang-apat pa rin ang DOH kasi under the Constitution natin, ang pinakamalaki talaga is education sector,” said DBM OIC Undersecretary Tina Canda.
About P1.18 trillion will go to infrastructure next year.
According to the DBM, this will lead to road, flood control and transportation projects.
Proposed 2022 national budget submitted to the House
And despite allegations that it is being used against government critics, the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC has increased to P28.1 billion from P19.1 billion in 2021.
More than 1,400 barangays are said to benefit from the agency’s Barangay Development Program.
But according to Bayan Muna, it would be better to disband the NTF-ELCAC to add to its budget for the COVID-19 response.
“Mas mabuti pa ay i-abolish na talaga ang NTF-ELCAC na ito at ilaan na lang ang bilyong-bilyong pondo dito sa direktang COVID response ng pamahalaan tulad ng bakuna, ayuda, libreng mass testing at dagdag na contact tracers,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite.
(It would be better to abolish this NTF-ELCAC and allocate billions of funds to the government’s direct COVID response such as vaccines, aid, free mass testing and additional contact tracers.)
The House will begin 2022 national budget deliberation on Thursday.
They will also certify it as urgent at the Palace so that it can be passed in the second and third reading.
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