{"id":253119,"date":"2020-04-24T06:35:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T10:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=253119"},"modified":"2020-04-24T06:47:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T10:47:37","slug":"malacanang-to-ask-approval-of-supplemental-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/24\/malacanang-to-ask-approval-of-supplemental-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaca\u00f1ang to ask approval of supplemental budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with the officials of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on March 19, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has revealed that he might ask Congress to approve a supplemental budget to augment the national government\u2019s resources for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response.<\/p>\n

Duterte, in a taped public address aired on Friday, said the funds earmarked to combat Covid-19 is already depleting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAko ho<\/em>, dependent\u00a0ako sa<\/em>\u00a0Congress (I am dependent on Congress),\u201d he said in a speech aired on state-run PTV-4. \u201cThey hold the purse.\u00a0Ibig sabihin hindi ako makagastos ng pera hanggang hindi sabihin ng<\/em>\u00a0House, then approval by the Senate (Meaning, I can\u2019t spend the money unless there is approval from the House of Representatives and the Senate).\u201d<\/p>\n

Congress, through Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, has granted Duterte special powers to tap some PHP275 billion in unused government funds to stop the further transmission of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the national government has already spent PHP352.7 billion to address Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Dominguez added that the government has sufficient budget for Covid-19 response but admitted that it lacks the authority to spend bulk of money to fight the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in a virtual presser on Friday, was confident that lawmakers would grant the possible request for a supplemental budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cKampante naman po kami dahil sa napatunayan na kooperasyon ng ating Kongreso na kung ano ang kinakailangan natin para labanan ang\u00a0<\/em>Covid-19, ibibigay naman po ng Kongreso<\/em>\u00a0(We are confident that because of their cooperation, Congress will give the money needed to fight Covid-19),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to resume sessions on May 4.<\/p>\n

In an interview over dzMM, Roque said Congress\u2019 approval is necessary to allow the government to tap more funds in a bid to stop the contagion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay pondo po tayo. Ang problema, kinakailangan siguro talagang mag<\/em>-enact\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0supplemental budget\u00a0ang Kongreso kasi hindi naman magagastos \u2018yung iba pang mga na walang mandato ng ating mga mambabatas<\/em>\u00a0(We have funds. The problem is we need the Congress\u2019 approval for a supplemental budget because we can\u2019t use it without the lawmakers\u2019 app<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has revealed that he might ask Congress to approve a supplemental budget to augment the national …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253119","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253120,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253119\/revisions\/253120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}