Solon hopes Duterte will signs GAB in entirety
HOUSE Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera is hopeful President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will sign into law the Congress-ratified P5.024-trillion national budget in its entirety.
Herrera said the final version of the 2022 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which has already been transmitted to the President for his signature, complies with the Constitution, thus reducing the chances of a veto.
“The GAB was prepared with the constitutionality of every provision in mind, and we are confident PRRD won’t veto its provisions, especially those related to COVID-19 response,” the Bagong Henerasyon representative said.
Herrera was a member of the House contingent to the bicameral conference committee that worked on the reconciled version of the national budget for 2022.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives had already ratified the report approved by the bicameral conference committee co-chaired by Senator Sonny Angara and Representative Eric Go Yap. The ratified version is only awaiting President Duterte’s signature.
According to the party-list lawmaker, the 2022 GAB tried to cover all of the requirements that will arise as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Next year’s national budget includes appropriations for benefits and compensation for health care workers, hiring of human resource for health emergency, laboratory network commodities, free COVID-19 tests for jobseekers, procurement of vaccine booster shots, hiring and training of contact tracers, among others,” Herrera pointed out.
“Most, if not all of these, were not funded in the National Expenditure Program or the original budget document submitted by Malacañang to Congress,” she added.
Herrera expressed confidence President Duterte will sign the 2022 national budget before the year ends.
