THE Senate passed on third and final reading Monday a remedial legislation extending the validity of the 2021 General Appropriations Act until a new national budget is passed.
Voting 22 in favor with no negative vote, senators approved the 2021 budget extension bill in hybrid plenary session adopting House Bill 10373, as amended by the Senate, to be known as An Act Extending the Availability of the 2021 Appropriations to December 31, 2022.
Sponsored by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, the remedial legislation extends the current budget until a new appropriations bill is enacted into law next year.
Angara, acknowledging timely approval of the remedial measure, said this is “crucial in the government’s recovery efforts, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to persist throughout next year in light of the looming threat of the Omicron variant.”
Angara added: “The approval of the measure will allow the government to provide more social services and implement more projects for the benefit of more of our countrymen, and to a certain extent, provide some stimulus for jumpstarting our economic recovery.”
Angara assured the public that the remedial legislation extending the 2021 budget’s validity until a new annual appropriation law is enacted next year will benefit 2.5 million indigent patients of government assistance, given a significant portion of the budget under Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) has yet to be obligated.
Moreover, the senator listed other implications of the extension:
■ With the Omicron variant threatening to reach the country, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) gets enough leeway to use unobligated appropriations to hire up to 8,000 more contact tracers for one month;
■ The government may help boost economic recovery by ramping up its spending, particularly in infrastructure, as the private sector reels from the effects of the pandemic.
■ The government may help boost the country’s economic recovery by ramping up its spending, particularly in infrastructure, as the private sector reels from the effects of the pandemic. Butch Fernandez
