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2021 National Budget Shows Priority for Security Sector Amid Pandemic: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon says the proposed P4.506T national budget for 2021 prioritizes the security sector over the health sector, even as the administration trumpeted that the proposed budget is “focused” on responding to and recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Drilon, during the hybrid plenary session Wednesday, November 11, 2020, noted the decrease in the proposed budget of the Department of Health which is P136.6 billion, lower than P181 billion combined allocations under the 2020 General Appropriations Act and the realignments from Bayanihan 1 and 2. The Minority Leader also cited the P8 billion allocation for Covid-19 vaccines as against the P19 billion anti-insurgency fund, P16.4 billion of which, a lump-sum appropriation, has been allocated to National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which is not even a regular line agency. While there are augmentations made on the allocation for social services, “a scrutiny of the budget would still tend to show a bias favoring the security sector,” Drilon said. (Screen Grab/Senate PRIB)