Alagang Angara

The Senate has received the House-approved General Appropriations Bill for 2020.

Our finance subcommittees are completing the hearings on the proposed budgets of the last few agencies. During the break, we will be consolidating all of the submissions into the committee report and once we resume sessions, we will be ready to sponsor the bill in plenary.

The Senate will work overtime to approve this most important piece of legislation so that the measure will be with the President for signing before the end of the year.

"Malapit na kami matapos sa pag-repaso at pag-review ng budget.  Bakit mabilis? Kasi dinamihan namin ang subcommittees. We have 9, headed by 9 vice chairpersons.  Pang-sampu ako. So we are  running on 10 pistons. When it comes to finetuning the budget, the Senate is a V-10 engine.  Kaya when I assumed  the chairmanship , ang sabi ko if we want to turbocharge our performance , then let us  create more sub-committees.

Government has no choice but to tap the full potential of the Pasig River "as a nautical road" which can ease  the “terrible congestion” in Metro Manila roads, Sen. Sonny Angara said today.

“I think the first order of business is to make the ferry system financially buoyant again,” Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee, said. 

He said next year’s proposed P74  million national government subsidy to the Metro Manila Development Authority for running a ferry along parts of the river’s original 15-kilometer service route  “is clearly not enough.“

Inaasahan natin na mapapabilis ang pagdinig ng mga kaso at pagluwag ng mga court dockets sa pagpirma ng Presidente sa Republic Act 11459 o ang Judges-at-Large Act.

As the principal author of this bill during the 17th Congress, I am well aware of the delays being faced in the delivery of justice in the country due to the slow disposition of cases in the courts.

Government will sustain its “indigent senior pension program” with a P23.18 billion allocation next year that will grant 3.8 million senior citizens a P6,000 annual stipend each, Sen. Sonny Angara said. 

On top of this is a P3,600 annual assistance from the “Unconditional Cash Transfer” (UCT) fund, a three-year “safety net” program for “economically vulnerable families and individuals” which began last year.

Both will be administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, based on a national list and a set of criteria. 

Instead of “playing catch up with backlogs” in school buildings, government should  “build forward”, by constructing in advance classrooms for future enrollees, Sen. Sonny Angara said today. 

“I think we should now implement a zero-backlog program. Let’s choose a year of when it will be achieved. And once that’s done, let’s stock up on new classrooms that will be ready in time for new enrollees to come in,” he said. 

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has P1 billion in Quick Response Funds (QRF) under this year’s Calamity Fund that it can tap to stop the spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF), Sen. Sonny Angara said today.

Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said government should now “break the glass of this emergency fund” and use it to implement the DA’s containment protocol against a disease which threatens a key food source that also adds P280 billion to the economy annually. 

The government housing agencies have done a lot to comply with the tenets of the ease of doing business but a lot more has to be done to address the backlog in the construction of settlements for the informal sector.

Building a house is a slog through 27 offices, 78 permits, 156 signatures, 373 documents that could last for months, Sen. Sonny Angara said in citing the red tape that is slowing down housing production in the country.