A SENATE committee scrutinized and then approved the proposed budgets of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and the Credit Information Commission (CIC), including the CIC’s request for P60 million in operating expenses and to boost its information communication technology (ICT) systems.
“We endorse without any objection the budget of the CIC to the mother Committee of Finance for plenary and further debate,” declared Senator Maria Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos at Thursday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on both of the agencies’ budgets.
The committee also endorsed the PCC’s budget of P465 million, a portion of which will be used to develop a digital forensics lab that could trace bid rigging in public procurements, said PCC Chairman Michael G. Aguinaldo.
Meanwhile, Ms. Marcos asked Benjamin Joshua A. Baltazar, president and Chief Executive Officer of the CIC, to submit a more detailed explanation on why the agency was requesting P60 million in additional funds to its P267.250-million budget for next year. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
