China News Service, Manila, October 17 (Reporter Guan Xiangdong) On October 17, local time, the Presidential Palace of the Philippines expressed its gratitude to the House of Representatives for completing the third reading day and night before passing the 4.506 trillion pesos national budget bill for 2021.
Compared with the 4.1 trillion pesos in the 2020 national budget, the Philippine national budget in 2021 will increase by 9.9%, which is equivalent to 21.8% of GDP.
This is the first national budget bill passed by the new Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Velasco.
Philippine Presidential spokesperson Harry Rock said that President Duterte has repeatedly emphasized the importance of passing the 2021 budget bill in a timely manner. The government needs resources to fund its interventions to alleviate the adverse effects of the new crown virus pandemic.
Locke hopes that the House of Representatives will submit the budget bill to the Senate as soon as possible so that the latter will have "ample time" to implement this urgent legislative measure.
As the Philippines’ current House of Representatives has two people sharing the agreement on the term of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the first, second and third readings of the 2021 National Budget Bill will be presided over by the two Speakers of the House.
Prior to October 12, 186 of the 299 members of the House of Representatives voted for the new Speaker of the House of Representatives Lord Velasco.
On the 13th, Alan Peter Cayetano, then Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, announced his resignation, and Velasco took over.
During Cayetano's presidency, the first reading of the budget bill has been completed.
At the call of President Duterte, the Philippine House of Representatives held a special session from October 13th to 16th to pass the 2021 National Budget Bill. The new Speaker Velasco presided over the passage of the second and third readings of the bill. 267 members agreed, 6 members opposed, and no one abstained.
According to the Philippine News Agency, 36.9% of the Philippines’ 2021 state budget will be used for social services, with a total of 1.664 trillion pesos, to provide financial support for health, social protection and education-related programs.
The economic services industry will receive 1.347 trillion pesos, accounting for 29.9% of the budget, making it the second highest allocation area.
In addition, public service expenditure budget is 724.2 billion pesos, debt burden budget is 56.2 billion pesos, and defense expenditure budget is 10.6 billion pesos.
The top ten departments receiving budget allocations are the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Works and Highways, the Ministry of Interior and Local Governments, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Justice and Labor (including unemployment benefits) Wait.
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