Presidential aspirant and Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has proposed institutional amendments to the 2022 budget bill, aiming to cut questionable appropriations to fund priority programs, activities, and projects.
Lacson proposed cutting funds for farm-to-market highways and right-of-way payments in order to fund important education, connectivity, anti-cybercrime, and defense projects for the coming fiscal year.
His proposed revisions include a P300 million investment in Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea, which he visited on November 20.
Lacson also included a special provision that allows local government units (LGUs) to directly contract with transportation cooperatives.
“This would lighten the load of the Department of Transportation and speed up the implementation of the PUV Modernization Program as the transport sectors may properly be represented by their respective LGUs. This would also ensure that the drivers are given fair wage and humane working conditions,” he said.
He wants the Department of Education’s (DepEd) teachers and workers to have a higher “connectivity load”. As a result, he recommended increasing the DepEd’s maintenance and other operational expenses budget from P2.3 billion to P3.3 billion.
Lacson also proposed cutting P1.97 billion from the Department of Agriculture’s budget, P2 billion from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ budget, and P4.7 billion from the Department of Public Works and Highways’ budget.
Lacson, on the other hand, proposed budget increases for DepEd, the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Department of National Defense (DND), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Philippine Coast Guard, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Meanwhile, Lacson sought to restore expenditures for the Loan Proceeds of the foreign-assisted project Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling, which were cut from P2.97 billion to P410.61 million by the House of Representatives.
Photo Credit:Facebook/PingLacsonOfficial