For senators, 2019 budget still up in the air

Senators have yet to approve the items in the 2019 national budget that were supposedly agreed upon by the Congress bicameral conference committee (bicam).

Senate President Vicente Sotto III maintained on Wednesday that as far as the Senate was concerned, nothing was conclusive regarding the R3.757-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) despite pronouncements from leaders of the House of Representative about its certain approval in the bicam.

Sotto said senators were set to meet in a caucus Wednesday afternoon to discuss the proposed provisions of the final measure.

“Senator [Loren] Legarda will report to us on the bicam and then we will take it up. We will play it by ear thereafter kung ano ang situation (the situation), kung ano ang napagkasunduan (the agreements in the bicam), at kung ang napagkasunduan nila ay iaapprove namin o hindi (and whether or not we will approve of those agreements),” the Senate chief said.

Sen. Loren Legarda, as chair of the Committe on Finance, leads the Senate contingent in the bicam panel.

Sotto said the bicam will convene anew after the caucus.

“Kaya magkakaroon din ng caucus is that’s another reason to brief the bicam members and also the members of the Senate kung ano ang napagkakasunduan pa lang. Hindi pa naman yan written in stone,” he said.

The two chambers will extend their session until Friday, Feb. 8, as they heed Malacañang’s appeal for the ratification of the spending bill, and its transmittal for the President’s signature.

Meanwhile, Sotto said he respected the appeal of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, asking legislators not to preempt President Duterte’s choices, after Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday called on the country’s leader to veto “pork” items in the GAB.

But like Lacson, Sotto believed that President Duterte should reject pork allocations.

“Kung nararapat, at kung talagang maliwanag na pork, bakit hindi? Dapat i-veto,” he said.

Lacson, for his part, clarified that he was not preempting Duterte in issuing his appeal.

“It was not my intention to preempt the President and I recognize his sole power under the 1987 Constitution to ‘line-item’ veto both appropriations and tariff bills submitted by Congress for his approval. Call it passion, exasperation, frustration, even desperation,” he said.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that the Filipino taxpayers’ hard earned money will not flow into the deep pockets of the corrupt few,” he added.

Sotto, earlier, said the Senate will stand firm on its institutional amendments to the 2019 budget.