House vows no delay in passage of 2020 budget

There won’t be a repeat of the four-month delay in Congress’ passage of this year’s budget.

The 28-member minority bloc in the House of Representatives yesterday assured their colleagues under the leadership of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano that they will not obstruct the passage of the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.

“Members of the minority are well-informed, very professional, well-behaved and welldisciplined, to say the least. We’ve promised that none of us will do any grandstanding or something for purposes of showing off,” Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante of Manila said.

House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said they have adopted mechanisms to speed up budget proceedings.

He said they would first meet with economic managers and department heads of the executive branch ahead of budget deliberations.

“We will hold budget briefings so that our colleagues will have enough time to raise their concerns and interact with the economic managers and department secretaries,” Romualdez said.

As another measure, Romualdez said they would also limit queries of lawmakers during actual deliberations.

“We also appeal to our colleagues to avoid repetitive questions during formal budget deliberations,” he said. Abante, on the other hand, said they expect their counterparts in the majority coalition not to resort to grandstanding.

“That is our request with the House majority – no grandstanding please,” he added.

Both House leaders issued their statements as Malacañang, through the Department of Budget and Management, is expected to submit next year’s outlay on Aug. 20, as detailed in the National Expenditure Program, the basis of the General Appropriations Bill.

The House appropriations committee under chairman Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab is to begin its budget hearings for all agencies of the national government – from the executive, legislative to judiciary – on Aug. 22.

At the same time, Abante echoed Romualdez’s call on lawmakers to avoid asking repetitive questions during the budget deliberations.

“There shouldn’t be repeated questions. We request that in order for us not to waste our time, we shouldn’t be asking the same or repetitive questions to resource persons during the public hearings,” he said.

The minority congressmen will also be having pre-budget briefings with different agencies in order to have their questions answered before the budget hearings start.

“In order not to delay the process, all questions that we will ask in the briefing, we will no longer ask during the budget hearings. Our colleagues should come on time. There will be discipline in this budget hearing,” Abante promised.

Romualdez said they would follow a strict timeframe for budget deliberations.