Buck passing over 2021 budget delay begins

HOUSE Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thurs day, October 8, 2020, said any delay in the approval of the 2021 budget bill would be the fault of the Senate, not the House of Representatives.

Senate President

Vicente Sotto III was quick to retort in a text message to reporters.

"The nerve! Passing the blame, it’s unacceptable!” he said.

"Do not be misled.

The House of Representatives has delayed the budget for a whole month. No one can ever blame the Senate for this delay. Never!” he added.

Sotto said the House should have approved the budget bill before their scheduled break on

October 17 as schedul ed.

Based on the budgetting process, the

Senate can only tackle the budget bill in plenary after it is approved by the House. After the bill is approved by both chambers, a bicameral conference committee would be convened to reconcile the two versions of the budget before a final bill is transmitted to the President for approval and enactment into law.

In a Facebook video

Thursday, Cayetano said there will be a delay of only one day in the transmittal of the budget bill from the House to the Senate.

"Please po, let us not really come to conclusion na mare-reenact ang budget. Hindi po, because there is only one day difference," Cayetano said in a Facebook Live vi d eo.

"One day lang po ang diperensya and I hope that maging malinaw ito because kung magkakaroon po ng delay o reenactment, it will be because of the Senate ,not because of the House, because we are only taking about only one day," he added.

Cayetano issued the statement after Senator Panfilo Lacson and other lawmakers warned that it would be impossible to pass the budget bill before the year ends and the government is likely to operate on a reenacted budget in 2021.

The House passed the budget bill, or House Bill No. 7727, on second reading on Tuesday, October 6, after Cayetano moved to terminate plenary debates.

It then suspended session, more than a week ahead of its scheduled recess from October 17 to November 16, in a move by Cayetano to retain the speakership.

During its break, a committee led by Majority Leader Martin Romualdez will accept until November 5 and deliberate on proposed committee and individual amendments to the bill.

The committee is also authorized to terminate the period of amendments. The House will resume session on November 16, 2020.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that when a bill is approved on second reading, the third reading will just be ceremonial.

“So there is always a case that there is a time lag between the approval on the second reading of the budget and the third reading, because you’re talking of three volumes of very large books to be printed by the House,” Roque said.

"As you know, when a proposed law is passed on second reading, the third reading is ceremonial, plus there really is a need for time because they would have to reprint or print the final version of the proposed law before they could approve it on third and final reading," he added.

The early suspension of the House plenary session has made it impossible for Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco and his allies to unseat Cayetano by October 14 in line with their July 2019 term-sharing agreement .

(With Jove Moya/ SunStar Philippines)