LRay urges funding for ‘Libreng Sakay’; pensions for SCs for 2023
AMID efforts by congressional leaders to fast-track the bicameral conference committee (bicam) deliberations on next year’s proposed P5.26-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA), CamSur Representative LRay Villafuerte is hoping this budget panel would be able to realign outlays for certain state offices and programs to bankroll, among others, the “Libreng Sakay” free bus and train rides in Metro Manila along with the higher pension for indigent senior citizens in 2023.
Villafuerte issued this statement this week as Speaker Martin Romualdez expressed confidence over the weekend that the Senate contingent to the 2023 budget bicam panel would support the House-proposed P77 billion-worth of amendments to augment next year’s GAA plan for transportation, safety nets, education, health, and other social services.
“As the bicam panel has started working on a consolidated GAA bill for 2023, I am keeping my fingers crossed that its members could scour for available funds in the proposed budget plan that would be enough for the DOTr (Department of Transportation) to stick next year not only with ‘Libreng Sakay’ for commuters at the EDSA Busway but also with Libreng Sakay for students at LRT-2 (Light Rail Transit Line 2),” Villafuerte said.
“The government needs to sustain its free rides at the EDSA Carousel and also at LRT-2 for students next year, especially with the ever-increasing cost of living and when our schools have started switching to in-person classes from the virtual learning modes at the height of COVID-19,” he said.
“I am hoping likewise that at the end of the bicam talks, there would be realigned funds, too, for the government to double next year the monthly pension of some four million indigent elderly Filipinos from P500 to P1000, as provided for in a new law,” added Villafuerte, who is the president of the National Unity Party (NUP).
“The bicam panel can hopefully winnow out in the 2023 budget plan the items for specific programs or projects whose outlays can be slashed, if not taken out completely, and realign such outlays for essentials like Libreng Sakay for the EDSA Busway and LRT-2 for Metro Manila commuters and students and the doubling of the monthly subsidy for our senior citizens,” he said.
In a weekend statement, Romualdez said he was “confident that the Senate and the House bicam members will see ‘eye-to-eye’ on this (proposed GAA amendments). Our objectives are the same: to pass a people’s budget that reflects President Marcos Jr.’s 8-point economic agenda that will help the country bounce back from the pandemic.”
Such institutional amendments by the House in the proposed 2023 GAA are for “ayuda” programs that will directly benefit the people, including P5 billion for the upgrade of the senior citizens’ pension through the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) and P2 billion for the DOTr’s Libreng Sakay program.
The free rides for all commuters at the EDSA Busway and for students at LRT-2 are both out next year, in the absence of specific outlays for these twin projects in the NEP (National Expenditure Program) for 2023 that the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) submitted earlier to the Congress, Villafuerte said.
The NEP, which the DBM submits to lawmakers annually at the start of the Congress’ regular legislative session, serves as the basis for the GAA or national budget bill that these legislators subsequently write for the following fiscal year and then submit for the President’s approval and enactment into law.
