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| Leni Robredo personally appealed to restore her office's budget for 2019 to the House Committee of Appropriations / photo from GMA News |
Manila, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo on
Wednesday requested to the House Committee on Appropriations to help restore
the reductions in the proposed budget of her office for year 2019.
Robredo personally appealed as she presented before the committee
the P447-million budget for the Office of the Vice President under the
National Expenditure Program for 2019.
“That would mean we would not be able to continue with our
livelihood assistance for our adopted LGUs. And if you look at the records, all
our adopted LGUs are the poorest, the farthest, of our communities, so the
livelihood assistance would have meant a great deal in supporting them,” she
said.
According to Robredo, the OVP originally asked for P549.6
million but was slashed by P100 million by the Department of Budget and
Management.
She explained that support of private corporations is not enough
for the OVP to continue helping poor communities.
“We would like to make this appeal, Mr. Chair: Sana po kahit
ibalik lang iyong dati,” Robredo said
“The office has been used to working within our means, pero
iyong pagbawas [sa 2019 budget], it’s not for operations, but it’s really for
livelihood assistance.” She added
Meanwhile, the House appropriations panel, in response to
Robredo assured her that it will find ways to help restore her original
proposed budget following the cash-based budgeting scheme under the 2019
National Expenditure Program (NEP).
House appropriations committee chair and Davao City Rep.
Karlo Alexei Nograles made the statement during the deliberations for OVP’s
2019 budget.
Nograles, on the other hand stressed that most of the
departments also experienced the same budget cuts.
“Wag kayong mag-alala. Hanapan natin ng paraan itong
problema na ito,” Nograles told Robredo
