MANILA, July 29 (PNA) — President Benigno S. Aquino III is getting ready to submit the proposed P2.6 trillion National Budget to Congress on Wednesday, a Malacañang official said Tuesday.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said the President spent the Eid’l Fitr holiday reviewing his budget message to Congress.
“As he said yesterday (Monday), the proposed 2015 budget of 2.606 trillion pesos will be submitted to Congress ‘on the first working day after the SONA’, which is tomorrow (July 30),” he said in a statement.
He said the President was in Bahay Pangarap and did not take the day off following his fifth State of the Nation Address last Monday.
In his address, President Aquino asked the support of Congress for the timely passage of the 2015 National Budget.
Asked about the supplementary budget the Executive department is planning to ask from Congress, Secretary Coloma said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is working on its fundamentals.
“According to Secretary Abad, the DBM is still working on the supplementary budget proposal, in terms of compiling the reports from the various departments and agencies on which projects that were part of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) have not been obligated or completed,” he said.
“Submission of a supplementary budget is part of compliance with the Supreme Court decision, while the motion for reconsideration is still undecided,” he added.
The President announced his plan to ask Congress for a supplementary budget for 2014 after the Supreme Court declared the DAP partially unconstitutional, jeopardizing ongoing projects funded by the program. (PNA)