{"id":140876,"date":"2017-12-20T21:23:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T02:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=140876"},"modified":"2017-12-20T21:23:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T02:23:01","slug":"no-zero-budget-for-opposition-lawmakers-projects-diokno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/20\/no-zero-budget-for-opposition-lawmakers-projects-diokno\/","title":{"rendered":"No zero budget for opposition lawmakers\u2019 projects: Diokno"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Department of Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno (Photo By Axelchard13, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday took exemptions on reports that opposition lawmakers\u2019 proposed 2018 projects will not get funding, saying that this information \u201cwas based on some misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a briefing Wednesday, Diokno said some districts will have reduced appropriations although he declined to give specifics on the adjustments.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there will be a distinction between those who are allies of the administration and those who are not,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

The Budget chief said this system is not new since this has been in the policy even before Martial Law.<\/p>\n

He, on the other hand, clarified that projects to be funded, or those that will not be financed, did not only come from lawmakers\u2019 proposal but also from district engineers and provincial governors, among others.<\/p>\n

He said funding will also depend on how worthwhile the projects are.<\/p>\n

Asked if it is legal to change the appropriations instead of funding it based on the proposal, Diokno said \u201cCongress can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through the process – – the House, the Senate, the various committees. So, what came out of that? Congress has the power to authorize, that\u2019s their power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Diokno, meanwhile, clarified that Congress has the power to authorize the budget but not implement the projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget is the most political tool for legislation that\u2019s why it involve both Congress and Executive,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed into law the 2018 General Appropriations Act or the PHP3.767 trillion national budget.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s budget is 12.4 percent higher than this year\u2019s PHP3.350 trillion and accounts for about 21.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).<\/p>\n

Bulk of the funding was allocated for social services at 37.8 percent, followed by economic services, 30.6 percent; general public services, 17.4 percent; debt burden, 9.9 percent; and defense, 4.3 percent.(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday took exemptions on reports that opposition lawmakers\u2019 proposed 2018 projects …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":110168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[28483,32622,39934],"class_list":["post-140876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-budget-and-management-secretary-benjamin-diokno","tag-opposition-lawmakers","tag-zero-budget","mauthors-joann-villanueva","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}