00:00The Senate approved the budget of several government agencies,
00:05including the Office of the President and the Presidential Communications Office,
00:09as reported by Daniel Manalastans.
00:13Senators are busy with the ongoing budget deliberations for the 2025 budget.
00:19Earlier, the budget of the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President,
00:24the Presidential Communications Office, and other government agencies
00:29approved the deliberations on the scenario of the Senate.
00:33Vice President Sara Duterte joined the budget deliberations.
00:37Senators did not ask about the budget of the Office of the President.
00:41Upon consultation with the Chairperson of the Committee on Finance,
00:45as well as our Minority Leader, Senator Coco Pimentel,
00:50I move that we consider and adopt, for consideration of the Senate and approval,
01:01the budget of the Office of the President, the President's offices,
01:06and the Presidential Management Staff.
01:09In the budget deliberations of the PCO,
01:11Senator Minority Leader Coco Pimentel asked the Executive Order on Freedom of Information.
01:18Are the people using this mechanism, any requests for FOI have been made and were granted by the office?
01:31Through the FOI program, Mr. President, the citizens are afforded the right to access
01:35government-held information, documents, data, and statistics.
01:39There have been 239,741 EFOI requests lodged,
01:46and there have been 151,991 standard FOI filed.
01:52There are different types of FOI requests, statistics, data sets, research, legal documents,
01:58personal information, etc.
02:00And the top requested agencies under the EFOI portal, Department of Health,
02:08with 22,692 requests, PSA, Statistics Authority,
02:13National Telecommunications, BIR, DepEd.
02:17Another item discussed in the plenary is the budget of the Department of Migrant Workers,
02:22where the Senators assessed the condition of some OFWs,
02:26particularly those with cases in other countries, including those in the death row.
02:30Recently, around 11 returnees, just last week, Mr. President,
02:36they were freed, Mr. President, and
02:40it is also because of the fact that our department consistently visits our kababayans who are in jails.
02:48In Malaysia, there are 41.
02:52In death row?
02:54Eight females and 33 males, Mr. President.
02:57Wow, that's a lot.
02:58So, there are...
03:00Most of them, Mr. President, are drug-related cases.
03:04Meanwhile, in the budget deliberations of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development,
03:09Senator Cynthia Villar asked to discuss the condominiums
03:13of a senator whose priority is housing, not housing.
03:17A number of government agencies are also in line, which will also be discussed in the coming days.
03:22Daniel Manalastas for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.
