House panel approves P14-B supplemental budget

he ouse appropriations committee voted yesterday to approve a . -billion supplemental budget that would augment the calamity fund that resident Aquino could use for typhoon victims.

he committee, chaired by avao ity ep. Isidro ngab, took the vote hours after extending the validity of unused appropriations in the budget up to the end of next year so these could likewise be used for relief and reconstruction.

After a marathon hearing lasting more than seven hours, ep. en vardone of astern amar, one of the provinces hit by uper yphoon olanda, moved for the approval of the additional calamity fund.

e have been debating on this measure, wasting our saliva for hours, and the debates are already running in circles. e now have to decide whether to approve or reject it, whether to give our suffering people hope for relief and aid in rebuilding their lives,” he said, choking with emotion.

e said ouse ill con- taining the supplemental calam- ity fund proposal complies with the legal requirement that it be accompanied by a certification from the national treasurer on the availability of funds.

peaker eliciano elmonte r., Majority eader eptali on ales II, Minority eader onaldo amora, and ngab authored the bill as well as oint esolution o. , which extends the validity of appropriations.

he ngab committee approved the bill in the presence of udget ecretary lorencio Abad, who rushed to the hearing after attending the weekly abinet meeting.

vardone said he could not understand why several of his colleagues in the committee were injecting extraneous issues that prolonged the debates and demanding requirements that the law on the approval of a supplemental budget does not provide.

e made the remark after Muntinlupa ep. odolfo ia on proposed that Malaca ang and the concerned agencies be asked to submit a detailed program specifying where the additional . - billion fund would go.

ia on said the recent upreme ourt decision on the riority evelopment Assistance und ( A ) questions the use of lump sums in the national budget.

is views were shared by eps. eri olmenares of ayan Muna and Antonio inio of Alliance of oncerned eachers, who said the proposed supplemental fund should be itemi ed.

olmenares warned the committee that the bill could be questioned before the upreme ourt if the proposed additional appropriation were a lump sum.

here is also the issue of whether the . - billion A balance could be used as the fund source for the supplemental budget, he said.

inio voted against ill , saying his concerns on the constitutionality of the measure were not addressed.

ngab said the committee would endorse the bill for plenary

approval early next week.

Reaching consensus

enate resident ranklin rilon is confident that the ouse and the enate will be able to reach agreement on how to resolve the differences in their versions of the eneral Appropriations ill.

he enate passed its version last uesday, with the majority agreeing to lower the proposed national budget from the original amount of . trillion to . trillion, representing a . -billion decrease which resulted from the deletion of the senators allocations for the now unconstitutional A .

he decrease in the budget proposal was the result of the decision of the senators and the vice president who opted to delete their A allocations worth million each, as the upreme ourt recently ruled that the A is unconstitutional,” rilon said.

he enate president expressed confidence that both the enate and the ouse of epresentatives will come to agreement as regards the adjustments. I m not worried that there will be a deadlock,” rilon said.

here can be difficulties sometimes, but at the end of the day, reasonable people can come up with an agreement that is acceptable not only to both chambers but also to the ilipino public in general.

e have an obligation to restore the people s trust in the government. ransparency and accountability will be the order of the day.”

he senators put forward several amendments in the eneral Appropriations ill from the ouse.

rilon said the enate moved to increase several items in the budget. hese included the . -billion budget increase for calamity fund and -million increase in quick response funds for the epartment of ealth ( ) and epartment of ransportation and ommunications ( ) to better capacitate the government in responding to calamities that may hit the country next year.

he enate also carved out billion for a rehabilitation and reconstruction program in areas heavily hit by the recent disastrous events, particularly yphoons olanda, abuyo and anti, the . magnitude earthquake in the isayas region and the siege in amboanga ity.

In total, we have allocated billion for the rehabilitation program to be undertaken by the line agencies next year, and of which billion is funded and billion is unprogrammed, which funds shall serve as standby authority and ready authori ation for spending once we receive the foreign donations and grants for victims of yphoon olanda,” rilon said.

he enate version realigned . billion from the -billion lump sum appropriation for scholarships to the budget of state colleges and universities to manage their own scholarship programs for deserving students.