House wraps up hearings on P5.77-T budget B J M N. D C @joveemarie
L
EADERS of the House of Representatives assured the public on Wednesday that there will be no reenacted budget next year as the House Committee on Appropriations ended its deliberations for the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget on time. This, after the committee finished scrutinizing all the budget allocations for government agencies for 2024 late Tuesday. House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Elizaldy Co said the next phase of the budget process involves consolidating all
ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
recommendations and amendments before they are brought for deliberation in the plenary. Co assured his colleagues and the public that the committee is working overtime to move forward in the legislative process. “The work is far from over, but the completion of these budget briefings marks a critical milestone in our journey towards a more prosperous and equitable Philippines,” Co said. “We have taken significant strides towards finalizing the 2024 budget, which promises to be a landmark budget focused on national growth and the welfare of the Filipino people,” said Co. House Committee on Appropriations Senior Vice
Chairperson Stella Luz Quimbo assured taxpayers that the lower chamber would pass the budget on time without compromising its quality. “We are on target; we started on August 10. By the grace of God, we finished it on time. It is expected that the plenary debates will start on September 19, and hopefully we finish this on September 27,” said Quimbo. “We need to finish on time; we don’t want a delay, we don’t want a reenactment budget, and we don’t want any form of delay,” she added. According to Quimbo, an executive committee meeting will be conducted before the approval of the committee report on the 2024 national budget on Thursday.
“We need to scrutinize it very carefully; at the committee we reached five rounds of interpellations. But so far we are very happy; the chairman of the appropriations [Elizaldy Co] is happy because members are active [at the committee level discussion],” she said. Right now, Quimbo said she cannot say which agencies will be affected by the budget cuts or will be granted an additional budget due to pending deliberations at the plenary. Moreover, Co said this year’s budget briefings have been marked by transparent and rigorous discussions, aiming to cover all S “H,” A
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
MARCOS PITCHES MIF, TECH AT ASIA SUMMIT www.businessmirror.com.ph
■
Thursday, September 14, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 332
P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK
B S P. M
S
@sam_medenilla
TRONG economic fundamentals, the soon-to-be implemented Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), and a thriving tech ecosystem headlined President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. call for new investments during the 10th Asia Summit of the Milken Institute in Singapore on Wednesday.
He particularly pitched the MIF, the country’s first sovereign fund, which he said will help draw investments and build additional supporting infrastructure for manufacturing without drawing additional government borrowings. The chief executive urged the participants to consider the country as an investment destination with its fast-growing economy based on last year’s GDP data, strong domestic demand, skilled workforce and investor-friendly policies. “The Philippines is open for business. We invite you to join us in shaping a brighter future for us all,” Marcos said in his keynote address at the summit. He said among the country’s top sectors open for investments are on renewable energy, tourism as well as digital services. “We are the number one country of choice for the delivery of customer support and to healthcare services. And one of the top destinations for outsourcing overall second only to India,” Marcos said. “Several data centers are already operating in the Philippines including Google, Microsoft, Amazon C A
SOBER OUTLOOK
Commercial and residential buildings rise in this skyline of Metro Manila as residential houses are seen in foreground. The Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) said that Philippine economic growth is expected to settle at a moderately slower 5.9 percent in 2023, but Philippine economic managers still hope the economy will grow by 6 to 7 percent this year. Gross domestic product expanded 4.3 percent from April to June, which was slower than the 6.4 percent growth in the first quarter. NONIE REYES
PHL TO PUBLISH NEW MAP SHOWING WPS, BENHAM RISE–NSC B M T-B @maloutalosig
H
AVE you noticed that the Philippine maps sold in bookstores or published in government websites do not indicate the West Philippine Sea and Philippine Rise? Well, the National Security Council said they will soon remedy that. NSC spokesman and Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya said the National Mapping and Resource Information Agency (Namria) will soon publish an updated map that will consolidate the sea or ocean areas where the Philippines have maritime entitlements as well as all land territories. “We will soon update our maps to show our EEZs and continental shelf including the West Philippine Sea and the Benham Rise [Philippine Rise],” Malaya said. Namria’s current version of the administrative map of the Philip-
PHL, India eye possible joint oil, gas exploration B M T-B @maloutalosig
M THE Philippine Rise PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COMMISSION ON THE LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF
pines includes the Kalayaan Island Group, Scarborough Shoal, Macclesfield Bank. West Philippine Sea and Benham Rise Region. It also shows
Sabah, which the Philippines claims but is not actively pursuing against S “A,” A
ARITIME and academic experts from India have suggested that Manila and New Delhi explore possible joint oil and gas exploration offshore, possibly in the West Philippine Sea. Fellows from the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) of India are in Manila to identify with their Philippine counterparts ways on improving maritime cooperation between both countries. Non-government think tank Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute hosted the Track 2 forum in Manila. One of the suggestions for areas of cooperation during the forum was the conduct of joint oil and gas offshore exploration, similar to India’s arrangement with Vietnam.
Vietnam has allowed Indian oil firm ONGC Videsh to drill in the Block 128 off Vietnam in the South China Sea. Wire reports said the VietnamIndia oil and gas exploration deal overlaps China’s nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea. However, Vietnamese Ambassador to Manila Hoang Huy Chung who was also present at the forum said the concession to India to drill and explore oil is within Vietnam’s “continental shelf” and not in the disputed South China Sea. Commodore Debesh Lahiri, executive director of NMF and head of the Indian delegation, said there is an international body called International Seabed Alliance which identifies and controls areas where S “PHL,” A
PESO EXCHANGE RATES US 56.7110 ■ JAPAN 0.3855 ■ UK 70.8320 ■ HK 7.2457 ■ SINGAPORE 41.6839 ■ AUSTRALIA 36.4311 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 15.1302 ■ EU 61.0267 ■ KOREA 0.0428 ■ CHINA 7.7781 Source: BSP (September 13, 2023)