House Deputy Speaker and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro T. Ungab gave the public assurance that the 19th Congress would put in extra effort to pass a dynamic and responsive national budget for 2023.
In a statement, he highlighted that because Congress has the power of the purse, “you can expect that we will diligently scrutinize the submitted budget and pass one that will be responsive and dynamic.”
In line with this, Ungab stressed the value of the education sector, which, according to the Constitution, should receive the highest budget allocation.
“Article XIV, Section 5(5), the Constitution provides that: ‘The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment,’” he emphasized.
The education sector, which includes the Department of Education, state universities and colleges, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, will receive an 8.2 percent increase next year at a total budgetary priority of P852.8 billion, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Ungab also said now that the Office of the President, through the Budget department has submitted the proposed P5.268 trillion national government budget to the Congress, it is time for lawmakers to go to work.
“The FY 2023 National Budget is the financial interpretation of the government’s plans and programs for 2023. It covers the President’s vision for our nation which can be realized with the appropriate and sufficient funding for such government’s plans and programs,” he added.
The lawmakers, according to Ungab, anticipate that the Development Budget Coordination Committee, which is made up of the National Economic and Development Authority, DBM, Department of Finance, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and Office of the President, has taken all relevant economic realities into account.
Photo Credit: House of Representatives Website