By MARIO CASAYURAN
The Senate, voting 22-0, yesterday approved on second and third reading the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year.
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III immediately formed a 15-man bicameral conference committee to meet with its 13-man House of Representatives counterpart to iron out the differing provisions of the General Appropriations Act based on House Bill 4228.
The Senate bicameral panel will be headed by Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Nine senators were named vice chairman.
The Senate panel will be composed of Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, and Senators Panfilo M. Lacson, Imee R. Marcos, Cynthia A. Villar, Pia S. Cayetano, Christopher Lawrence ‘’Bong’’ Go, Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Richard J. Gordon, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, and Francis N. Pangilinan.
Drilon, Go, and Drilon congratulated the Senate Finance Committee for a job well done.
Explaining his vote, Go thanked Angara for increasing by P7 billion the budget of the Department of Health that would, among others, ensure that no nurses or other health workers shall be separated from the DoH rolls of employees.
He likewise thanked the Senate and House for the swift passage of the money bill.
Go also asked the bicameral conference committee of both chambers to iron out their differing provisions of the budget to avoid the administration from using a re-enacted budget.
‘’Let us work double time,’’ he added, referring to a congressional objective of submitting the national budget to Malacanang before the end of the year.
