Labor group, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) demanded the government to disclose how much was spent and where the budget was sourced during the visit of Pope Francis.
BMP said in a statement that they “are only taking cue from the homilies and speeches delivered by his Holiness.”
“Allocations for state visits of foreign dignitaries usually come from the budgetary appropriations for the foreign affairs department, which is mostly relegated for its personnel services, based on the 2013 General Appropriations Act”, the group said saying the Department of Foreign Affairs budget is not enough to cover the expenses of some
forty thousand security forces for the five-day Pope Francis trip to Manila and Tacloban.