Congress squabble derails ’21 budget

On Sunday, President’s son and Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte confirmed sending a text message attributed to him with a warning to declare all seats in the House vacant

The power struggle shaking the House of Representatives may derail the passage of the 2021 national budget which the Philippines could not afford to have, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned on Monday.

This will not be good to the country’s chance to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

and may derail efforts to put the economy back in harness.

“Certainly, a power struggle in the House of Representatives will affect our timelines and I hope not because we are still in the middle of a pandemic, we have about 10 percent unemployment and we expect to have a contraction of our economy,” Drilon said.

“A delay in the budget will be very critical. We can only express hope that this power struggle, which is a business of the House, will not derail our budget preparations. We cannot delay the budget for 2021 because of the condition we are in today,” he added.

On Sunday, President’s son and Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte confirmed sending a text message attributed to him with a warning to declare all seats in the House vacant due to the ongoing quarrel over the infrastructure budget under the proposed 2021 expenditure program.

Some lawmakers exposed House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano as being able to get a lion’s share from the infrastructure funds for his district in Taguig City, as well as the other district represented by his wife Lani.

A new document obtained by Daily Tribune listed 53 projects amounting to nearly P7 billion for Taguig City.

Cayetano is a Nacionalista partymate of DPWH Secretary Mark Villar.

Villar’s parents — Manny and Senator Cynthia Villar — head the NP.

Botched deal

Cayetano’s questioned share of the DPWH funds is seen by others as related to the term-sharing deal between the House Speaker and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco which Cayetano no longer wants to honor.

Cayetano and Velasco have agreed to a 15-21 term-sharing agreement as proposed by President Rodrigo Duterte. Cayetano is now reneging on that deal despite Duterte’s latest vague remark on their deal.

“Lord is pitiful,” the President was quoted as saying.

Cayetano ouster

A “coup” was said to have been planned yesterday but lawmakers loyal to Cayetano suspended the session to give their leader more time to reorganize his group.

Cayetano, according to several lawmakers, is now using money meant for the Bayanihan 2, funds which are supposed to alleviate the people’s fight against the new coronavirus pandemic to appease the ongoing revolt against him.

Parts of it will now be used the congressmen’s soft projects through the Local Government Subsidy Fund (LGSF), which include funding for scholarships, medical assistance, livelihood training and similar light projects.

As if to confirm the lawmakers’ claim, a message from Villafuerte was sent to many of their peers, saying: “Your allocated LGSF for 2020 which were missing are back. We reinstated them as per instruction of the Speaker in Bayanihan 2.”

Noting the House’s previous experience after the ouster of former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Drilon said a change in leadership will affect the budget-crafting process.

“We are not talking in theory. We have actually experienced in the House of Representatives caused the delay in the budget. The budget provides the spending authority for the government. If there is no spending authority because of the delay in the budget, what would happen is, there will be a re-enacted budget and a re-enacted budget would mean that new programs will not be funded,” he said.

Terrible effects

“The effects will be terrible. We expect our GDP to contract by anywhere between 6 to 9 percent by the end of the year. If we again delay the budget for 2021, you do not expect a recovery or the recovery will be derailed. More than any other time in the past, it is critical that the budget be enacted on time,” he added.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III shared Drilon’s opinion but he said the Upper Chamber cannot interfere with the squabbles in the House of Representatives.

“If they do not settle their issues, yes, the budget might be delayed. But I’d rather no(t) meddle and speculate on what’s happening in their turf,” he said.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, said the arguments in the House will also cause the deterioration of respect to the institution.

That’s pork

“More than the possible delay in the passage of the 2021 national budget, any ugly squabble in plenary over the distribution of earmarks aka “pork” is exactly that — ugly,” Lacson said.

“When statesmanship goes out of the window, our people’s respect towards the legislature as an institution as well as its individual members somehow dissipates. Any way we look at it, it is sad and lamentable, to say the least,” he added.