RP budget approved

RP budget approved

MANILA (Reuter): The Philippine Congress has approved a 394.8
billion peso (US$15.07 billion) budget for 1996 after marathon
deliberations over the past few days, legislators said yesterday.

The approved budget was finalized by a joint panel comprising
leaders of the 200-person House of Representatives and the 24-
person Senate. The budget for 1995 reached 369.9 billion pesos
($14.1 billion).

The House approved the budget on Thursday and the Senate gave
its approval later the same evening.

"We are putting a lot of emphasis and focus on the social
reform agenda to make certain that the benefits of this (budget)
will trickle down to the masses," House Speaker Jose de Venecia
told a news conference after the vote on Thursday.

More funds were given to the agriculture department to help it
cope with a severe supply crunch which sent prices of rice, the
staple food of the Philippines' 68 million people, soaring in the
third quarter of 1995.

Rice prices surged to as much as 26 pesos (99 cents) a kilo in
August and September, from 13 pesos (49 cents) earlier in the
year.