Habitually quick House
We are indeed fast but not only in approving the budget
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano conceded to the assessment of critics that the passage of the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget was swift, but he said the House of Representatives has been quick in many other aspects.
On Friday, members of the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted for the approval of the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA), on second and on third and final reading, only a month after the National Expenditure Program (NEP) was handed down to the chamber.
Opposition lawmakers, however, criticized the House leadership’s haste in approving the bill, saying the chamber still has enough time to scrutinize the budget and approve it in October as what was agreed upon.
“Yes, we are indeed fast but not only in approving the budget,” Cayetano said.
“Our passing of the budget in record time will give our standing and special committees more time to exercise their oversight functions especially over the 2019 budget, programs, platform and projects of our country,” Cayetano said in a speech he delivered before the members of the chamber after the budget was passed.
The Speaker also said the swift passage of the bill affords lawmakers enough time to pass revenue measures to support the funding for next year’s budget.
A total of 257 lawmakers voted in the affirmative, while six lawmakers, all members of the Makabayan bloc, voted in the negative on House Bill 4428 or the General Appropriations Bill.
The approval of the proposed measure on second and on third reading on the same day became possible after President Rodrigo Duterte certified the budget bill as urgent last 17 September.
Speaker also said the swift passage of the bill affords lawmakers enough time to pass revenue measures.
‘Palay’
procurement
In his speech, Cayetano also informed legislators that the House leadership had found a source for an additional P7 billion for palay procurement.
“(House Appropriations panel chairman Isidro) Ungab has already found P3 billion… but we would like to go higher than P10 billion.”
There is a growing consensus among members of the House to increase the funding of the Department of Agriculture for the procurement of local unhusked rice to help farmers affected by the declining palay prices.
Cayetano urged his colleagues to submit their proposed amendments before the small committee tasked to hear amendments to the budget and reiterated that there is a need to augment the funds for education, health and electrification.
“Education and health need much more fund and fine-tuning of their programs. Electriifcation, for quite a number of years we have heard of 100 percent electrification in the Philippines. We’ve been deceived for years. So, please submit your amendments regarding 100 percent electrification of our country,” he said.
“So that’s why this 18th Congress, with open ears and open mind, we will accept and look at each and every amendment with consensus,” he told lawmakers.
The House leadership has given House members until Monday to submit individual amendments to the national budget.
Senate not as fast
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, for his part, vowed to thoroughly scrutinize the national budget. In a radio interview on Saturday, Sotto said the Senate is not pressured to speed up its ongoing budget proceedings, saying the early passage of the budget at the House will only give the Senate more time to deliberate on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
“No, not at all. It will just give us a better timetable,” Sotto said.
He lauded the swift approval of the budget by the House.
In the interview, the Senate leader said that the Senate will make sure that lump sum funds will not get its way to the spending bill.
“Those [pork barrel funds] will not get through Senators (Sonny) Angara and Ping (Lacson).”
Sotto said the Senate committee report on the bill might be ready by November, while the bicameral conference committee hearing into the GAB could start first week of December.
To recall, the approval of the 2019 budget suffered delays due to disagreements caused by supposed insertions in the budget.
Due to this, the government operated on a reenacted budget from January this year until the 2019 budget was signed last April.
Our passing of the budget in record time will give our standing and special committees more time to exercise their oversight functions.