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Business Insght
Monday, JanuarY 6,2O2O

Duterte :.

set to stgn
2020 budget
BY JOCELYN MOIIIIEMAYOR

PRESIDENT Duterte is set to

sign today the P4.1-ttilJion national
budget fot 2020 aftet meticulously
scrutioizing the appropriations
measure ratrlied by Congress in
December.
The website of the / )ffice of the
Presidential Legislative Liaison Of-
fice (ILLO) said the 2020 Ger'eral
Approptiations Bitl (GAB) will be
the 547th larv to be enacted duting
the l)uterte administration.
Chief Presidential iegal Coun-
sel Sah.ador Panelo, concuttent
presidential spokesman, said the
President did a "thorough" studY
of the apptoptiation bill, which
',vas ctafted consistent to the
theme, "Continuing the JourneY
to a N{ore Peacefirl and Progtessive
Pbilippine s."
The P4.1 trillion budget is 12'
percent higher than laat ye{s P3.7-
tilion expenditute program, and
is equivalent to 19.4 petcent o{ the
gross domestic ptoduct,
Sen. Pa4fikr Lacson had aP'
pealed to President Duterte to

See DUTERTE l Page 83

of portions of the sion or glant of media ftanchises;

DUTERTE
closely examine the money mea-
sure following his exPosure ot
supposed last-minute insertions
made by members of the House
of Representatives shordy before
the 2020 GAB was separately rati-
fied bv the House and the Senate.
I-ac'son had promised to give the
budget departrn€ot and Duterte a list
of the alleged insertions, which he
said included eight flood projecs all
suspiciously worth P60 million each.
The 2020 GAB is the 61st law to
be srgned in the current Yeat
The President on December
20, 2019 last signed RePublic Act
22464 that extended the ar,zilabfity
to December 31,2020.
201 9 budget uP
The PLLO said the first law
signed by Duterte when he became
presidentwas RA 10923 or *re Act
postponing the October 2016 ba-
nngay and Sangguniang Kabaaan
(SIQ elections on October i 5, 201 6.
Of the 546 laws signed in the
last tlree years,296 were enacted in
2019, including the 17 that laPsed
irto law approving the ceadon of
barangays and extending legislative
franchises,
Of the list of laws, 112 were na-
tional in scope coverage such as the
Rice Tirrification law, guidelines on
the imposition of rate ceilings for
political advertisemens, and exten-
while 431 others pertained to laws
vrith localized coverage, includ-
ing those tlnt cteated ot rcnamed
public elementary, high schools and
community colleges, and drose that
created or separated barangays and
roads, among others.
F,leven of the laws vrere in-
cluded in the priority measure of
the administration, ot the common
legislative agenda of the executive
and legislative branch, among them
the laws that raised the excise tax
on tobacco prcducts, revised the
Corporation Code of the PhiliP-
pines, the tice rariffication law
and the institutionalizarion ot lhe
universal healtl care insurance.

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