Latest news with #MikaelaSuansing
GMA Network
3 days ago
- Business
- GMA Network
Budget panel chair to confer with House members on AKAP fate
Funding for the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), the assistance program for minimum-wage earners, which has been defunded in the National Expenditure Program for 2026, will be subject to consultation with members of the House of Representatives. According to Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing, the chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations, AKAP had been quite helpful for the constituents of House members. 'I would have to confer with my colleagues in the House because this would have to be a collective decision, whether or not to add funding for AKAP for this budget cycle,' Suansing told reporters. 'Personally, in recent years, nakita ko 'yung naitulong ng AKAP sa aming mga constituencies, or sectors that were previously untapped by AICS,' she added, referring to the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis (AICS) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier said that AKAP was not included in the proposed P6.7 trillion budget for 2026. She said there were still undisbursed AKAP allocations under the 2025 budget. 'So we see the value in AKAP. So that's why, as I said, I would need to confer with my colleagues in the House because I would need to know the disposition of the whole House with regard to AKAP,' Suansing said. Suansing said that the House of Representatives, as part of a bicameral Congress alongside the Senate, had the authority to introduce amendments to the proposed budget, provided that they are in line with the administration's priority programs. 'The agencies have the right to express their views that these are our priority programs. Please make sure these are funded. We welcome the suggestions or the thoughts of our partners in the Executive with regard to which programs and projects they want funded," Suansing said. "And given that Congress has the power of the purse, we actually actually have that ability to look into every single line item in the National Expenditure program [as proposed by the President] and the General Appropriations Bill [to be approved by Congress], as well as move around the funding [to other budget items] accordingly,' she added. 'But again, the House will follow the call of President [Ferdinand] Bongbong Marcos [Jr.] in making sure that the programs and the projects that we will fund for fiscal year 2026 are aligned with the priorities of the administration,' Suansing said. –NB, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
05-08-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
House to prioritize agency-backed amendments in 2026 budget
The House of Representatives will prioritize the inclusion of amendments backed by government agencies in the proposed 2026 national budget while also hearing out parochial concerns, House appropriations panel chairperson Mikaela Suansing said Tuesday. Suansing said it is understandable for House members to push for government projects to address the needs of their constituents "but on the part of the House, given the limited fiscal space, what we [will] prioritize are institutional amendments." "Parochial amendments are for the needs of a particular locality, while institutional amendments emanate from the [government agencies] themselves. That is what we are looking at,' she told reporters. However, she said, it does not mean that the amendments to be put forward by House members will be readily dismissed. The presence of budget watchdogs and public availability of committee level proceedings, Suansing said, will ensure that the amendments to be included in the national budget will be meritorious whether they are suggested by government agencies or members of Congress. "The deliberation on the new House subcommittee on budget amendments review will be available to the public, including via livestream. So anybody who will sit on this committee and put forward amendments and how will it be resolved will be known by the public,' the lawmaker said. She was referring to the new House appropriations subpanel in charge of budget amendments, replacing the small committee which used to be a tight-knit unit composed of lawmakers collating amendments proposed by House members after the budget is approved at plenary level. 'Because the deliberations are transparent, maiiwasan na po talaga natin 'yung pagkakaroon ng mga insertions na iintindihan naman namin na 'yun 'yung pinagmumulan ng pangamba ng ating mga kababayan,' Suansing added. (Because the deliberations are transparent, we will be able to avoid insertions that cause distrust among the public.) In the same interview, Suansing said President Ferdinand Marcos,Jr.'s statement during his fourth State of the Nation Address that he is willing to delay the signing of the proposed national budget if it does not align with the administration's priorities should not be viewed as an attempt to clip Congress' power of the purse. 'The statement of the President does not undermine the power of the purse of Congress because the the President has very specific priorities in terms of what social services, what projects he would like prioritized. That is the alignment that the President is asking Congress to focus on,' she said. 'I believe it is not undermining the House but rather its a please, ensure that the administration's priority programs are taken cared of. And we saw that the President's priority is human capital development, including education, labor, and health. For our part, those are also the programs that we will support because human capital development is very important in ensuring our country's economic future for many many generations,' she added. In a separate statement, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco welcomed the abolition of the small committee which he earlier flagged for supposed unlawful intervention in the budget process. 'We thank the House committee on appropriations for heeding our call. The small committee was not transparent, so we must abolish it. The fact that they agreed to abolish the small committee proves that I was correct,' he said. Still, Tiangco insisted that all individual amendments of the House members should be discussed in a plenary session. However, he emphasized that the removal of the small committee is just the first step toward promoting transparency in budget deliberations. 'All individual amendments must be discussed in plenary before the approval of the House General Appropriations Bill on second reading. A lengthy line item list [of amendments] is not an excuse. If that is the case, we must work overtime,' Tiangco said in a statement. 'Trabaho namin 'yan. Kahit gaano kahirap, dapat naming gampanan (That is our job so we must do it no matter how hard it is). No ifs and buts," he added. —AOL, GMA Integrated News
