Despite Avisado ailment, Palace sending ₧5-T NEP to solons soon

ALACAÑANG said on Monday it will soon be submitting to Congress its proposed P5-trillion 2022 National Expenditure Plan (NEP).

MPresidential spokesman Harry Roque said Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado was able to finalize the NEP before going on sick leave after he was afflicted with Covid-19.

“The National Expenditure Plan is already being printed for submission to Congress,” Roque said in an online press briefing last Monday.

This was confirmed by the DBM, but it noted it has yet to determine when it will be sent to lawmakers for consideration.

Roque noted the NEP is expected to contain the stimulus package to allow the economy to recover from the business disruption caused by the Covid-19.

The Palace official said it is also expected to contain funding to allow the Philippine Genome Center, which is responsible for detecting new variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2), to expand its operation in Visayas and Mindanao.

No reason for delay

ALSO on Monday, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he sees no valid reason to delay the traditionally early submission to Congress of the annual budget for next year, amounting to P5.02 trillion for year 2022.

Lacson, in a statement Monday, maintained that even with the physical absence of Avisado, the DBM has an “abundance of competent and capable” career undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who can “avail of existing telecommunication technology for his guidance and direction.”

He added: “I thus cannot see any reason for delay of the constitutionally mandated 30-day period submission of the National Expenditure Program to Congress,” after President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address last July 26.

Lacson asserted the same could be said of the simultaneous public hearings on the budget bill in the House Committee on Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, even as Avisado is still on sick bay.

Last week, the DBM started seeking President Duterte’s approval on the proposed P5.024-trillion 2022 national budget, and submitted the memorandum to the President to seek his approval on Monday, July 26, the same day of the SONA.

Avisado told reporters then the memorandum highlights the important features of the 2022 NEP.

“We are in the process of having the Memo for the President for the approval of the NEP signed by PRRD [President Rodrigo Roa Duterte] first then we will prepare the President’s Budget Message and have the NEP printed out and thereafter submit it to Congress within the period prescribed by the Constitution,” he said.

Avisado also vowed to submit the 2022 NEP to Congress within the deadline stipulated under the Constitution.

The budget department has 30 days after the opening of the regular session of Congress to make the submission to lawmakers. This means the DBM needs to submit the 2022 NEP on or before August 25.