MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte will exercise his powers to review and possibly veto certain provisions in the P4.506-trillion national budget for next year, which includes the P72.5-billion fund to be used for COVID-19 vaccine procurement, storage and distribution, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. also assured the public that the President would be able to sign the budget program by yearend to avoid a reenacted budget.

“We will take all steps necessary to ensure this will become a law on time without the Palace or the President surrendering his authority to review the budget and to make sure that there would be no items that need to be vetoed,” Roque said.

“So the President will still exercise his power of review and his power of line veto,” he added.

As of last night, Roque said the Office of the President had not yet received the ratified copy of the 2021 budget.

“We are waiting for it, and we want to assure that the Palace will fast-track its review to determine if there are specific line items that need to be vetoed. But that will not happen until we get a copy of the budget. We need to ensure we have a new budget by Jan. 1,” he said.

Roque also said the President may convene a Cabinet meeting before delivering his regular public address on Monday. Asked if it would be possible to hold virtual Cabinet meetings, Roque said: “You know, the President really wants to see everyone during Cabinet meetings. But anyway the President addresses the people regularly.”

Congress has increased the allocation for pandemic response and calamity recovery programs in the ratified budget.

House appropriations committee chairman Eric Yap revealed that several institutional amendments were made in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved by the bicameral conference committee hours before the ratification on Wednesday by both the House and the Senate.

Yap said the bicam panel, which he co-chaired, has increased to P70 billion the appropriation for purchase, storage, transportation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

In the earlier version of the GAB passed by both House and the Senate, only P8 billion was allocated for purchase of the vaccines under the budget of Department of Health (DOH) for next year while no appropriation was given for their storage, transportation and distribution.

Apart from this, Yap said the bicam committee also added P2 billion for the procurement of personal protective equipment or PPE, P434.4 million for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program, P462 million for the Medical Health Assistance Program, and P100 million for mental health program, all under the DOH.

The ACT-CIS party-list congressman further revealed that the bicam panel also approved several other changes in the GAB introduced by the House contingent, including the additional funding of P44.8 billion for the administration’s flagship “Build, Build, Build” program under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Yap explained that they added infrastructure projects in provinces and towns ravaged by Typhoons Rolly and Ulysses last October and November.

He said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also received a budget augmentation of P3.177 billion, a majority of which is for the Office of the Secretary’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged or Displaced Workers Program or TUPAD.

Yap said the bicam also increased the budget for Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (LEEP) and the Government Internship Program (GIP) by P5.09 billion, bringing its total to P19 billion.

The TUPAD, LEEP and GIP are government’s social amelioration programs for workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Militant party-list lawmakers, meanwhile, slammed the retention of the P19-billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“The Senate and the House stood firm in retaining the P19.1-billion budget of NTF-ELCAC, which is known as fake news peddler and red-tagging arm of the government, while many of our countrymen will not be able to receive aid next year,” Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said in a statement.

“The funds of the Filipino people shall be used to feed the Duterte regime’s attack dogs. Billions will be used by NTF-ELCAC to intensify red-tagging and state-sponsored misinformation in order to attack those who express dissent against the Duterte administration,” Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago of the Makabayan bloc said.— Edu Punay, Jennifer Rendon