House approves P1.816-T budget for 2012

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the proposed P1.816-trillion budget for next year. With 198 House members voting in the affirmative, the chamber passed House Bill 5023 or the General Appropriations Bill of 2012. Before the 2012 budget was passed, the House members agreed to return P4.87 billion from the controversial P101-billion Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) to fiscally autonomous agencies, including the judiciary, the Congress and constitutional commissions. The MPBF is a special purpose fund where money for vacant government posts was initially impounded. It introduced by the executive into the proposed 2012 budget, supposedly to ensure transparency in the handling of government money. The House also realigned P150 million from the Department of Education’s 2012 budget to add P300 to each public school teacher’s “chalk allowance." Each teacher currently gets P700 a year in “chalk allowance," an item that is labeled as “Cash Allowance for Teachers" under the national budget. The money is supposed to cover the purchase of blackboard chalk and other instructional materials for classes. The House also transferred P100 million from the Office of the President’s intelligence fund to allocations for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The chamber likewise agreed to realign portions of the Department of Health’s funds for the upgrading of equipment to government-run specialty hospitals such as the Philippine Heart Center and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Following the approval of the budget, the House will not transmit it to the Senate, which is currently deliberating it at the committee level. — KBK, GMA News