Truth is we still have to look at the enrolled bill because much of it really has gone through the tedious process of both houses reviewing it.

Congress approved yesterday next year’s P4.1 trillion national budget and sent it to the Palace for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature.

A bicameral conference, composed of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, approved the budget proposal.

The House of Representatives then ratified the bicameral report and the Senate later followed suit.

Members of the economic team hailed the approval of the appropriations before the year ended, thus, assuring that 2020 will start with the government already armed with a budget.

“Truth is we still have to look at the enrolled bill because much of it really has gone through the tedious process of both houses reviewing it and then agreeing that this is going to be the final outcome of their efforts,” Department of Budget and Management Secretary Wendel Avisado said.

He added, “In terms of timetable, we’re glad that they finally approved it and ratified it because it will then also fast-track the signing of the 2020 budget by the President that is within the month.”

Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the pace of the budget approval showed “much improvement over last year, so we’re quite pleased that we will start the year with honest to goodness 2020 budget rather than what had happened to the 2019 budget.”

The meeting of the joint panel was postponed twice as senators asked for more time to scrutinize the final provisions of the budget bill.

The joint panel was headed by Senate Finance Committee chairman Sonny Angara and House Appropriations chairman Isidro Ungab.

After Congress ratified the budget in their respective chambers, the 2020 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will be printed and transmitted to Malacañang for President Duterte’s signature.

Angara, in a chance interview, said he is confident that Mr. Duterte will approve a new budget before Christmas.

But the proposed budget still contained pork barrel as claimed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Minutes after the bicameral conference committee approved the final version of the GAB, Lacson claimed that there was at least P16 billion “last minute insertions” made by the House of Representatives.

Asked for his comment on Lacson’s claims, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said in an interview that they will inform the Executive Department of the Senate assessment, including the observations bared by Lacson.

Sotto added that he will leave the fate of the alleged P16 billion pork barrel to the President when he reviews the bill.

To recall, the 2019 national budget’s approval was delayed after the Senate and House of Representatives did not find common ground on the questionable provisions of the expenditure plan.

This prompted Mr. Duterte to veto P95 billion worth of projects which he found inconsistent with the Constitution.

In a joint statement, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez maintained that the budget that was passed has no pork and no parked funds.

“While there is no perfect budget, both the Senate and the House of Representatives have identified areas where funds have been underutilized for various reasons.”

“Thus, both houses made adjustments so it can now be fully utilized for programs such as the ‘Build, Build, Build’ and social welfare programs in furthering the goal improving the quality of life of Filipinos,” the statement read.

They said the early approval by the committee will give the President ample time to review the bill’s provisions and ensure that it is aligned with the priority programs of the administration.