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.