House steps up on budget

We have the assurance of our leadership that all amendments will be judiciously considered and most likely accepted.

The House of Representatives swiftly responded to President Rodrigo Duterte’s endorsement of the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020, or House Bill 4228, as leaders promised an approval on second and third readings within today’s session.

House Deputy Majority Leader Pampanga 4th Dist. Rep. Juan Pablo “Rimpy” Bondoc stated this during the House plenary session.

In issuing the certification, Mr. Duterte said he does not want a repeat of the friction that happened last year that led the national government being forced to operate on a reenacted budget in the first quarter.

The delay caused a slowdown in capital outlays mostly for infrastructure building and a decline in the country’s gross domestic product for the first half.

“I have been informed by the House leadership that similar to what had occurred in 2015, we are going to have the approval on second and third readings of House Bill 4228 tomorrow after forming a small committee composed of majority and minority members to accept amendments,” he said.

“This has been done in the past in the spirit of transparency and procedural method. It was done in the previous Congresses, so that we will be given a longer time to admit all the amendments of our colleagues,” the legislator averred.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said it will be the first time the House could pass a budget bill on second and third reading in a day as a result of its certification as urgent.

Bondoc assured lawmakers that all their proposed amendments will be considered.

“We have the assurance of our leadership that all amendments will be judiciously considered and most likely accepted,” Bondoc told the members of the House.

The House of Representatives received the National Expenditure Program (NEP) or the Executive document that is considered the draft budget last 20 August.

The House Appropriations Committee began deliberating on the proposed budget of various agencies on 22 August. The plenary began tackling the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) only last 10 September.

Earlier in the day, the Palace announced Mr. Duterte has certified as urgent the proposed appropriations for next year.

The Chief Executive, in his letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, said he is calling for the swift passage of the 2020 spending bill to “maintain continuous government operations” and “to expedite the funding of various programs, projects, and activities” for the coming fiscal year.

“In certifying the urgency of the budget bill, PRRD wants to convey to the members of Congress the importance of passing the General Appropriations Bill on time to avoid a repeat of a reenacted budget that wreaked havoc to the economic program of this administration, affected the timely delivery of basic services to the people, and ultimately, slowed our growth during the first quarter of this year,” Mr. Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

“Government operations must never be hampered and our constitutional mandate to serve the Filipino people must prevail over partisan considerations and constant differences or varying interpretations on the budget,” he added.

Meanwhile, Panelo assured that Mr. Duterte will exercise his veto powers on next year’s GAB if he sees irregularities.

This, following Joey Salceda’s recent disclosure that each member of the House of Representatives will be allocated P100 million for their respective projects.

Salceda, however, was quick to clarify that the said amount is “pork” and reiterated that the lawmakers’ projects have been itemized in the NEP.

This was done when the congressmen sent their funding proposals to the Executive branch, he said.

“We will wait for it to be submitted to the President then he will decide whether it is pork or not. He will veto it if it is against the Constitution,” the Palace official told reporters in an earlier interview.

“It doesn’t matter if it was the Executive who processed it. The ultimate hand that will veto or approve it will be the President’s,” Panelo stressed.