House may pass budget this week

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives will do its best to pass the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 this week, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

Belmonte said if the House fails to pass the measure on Friday before it goes on a three-week break, it could hold a special session.

“But the way I see it, we can still manage to pass the budget,” he told reporters.

Plenary deliberations on the budget bill had been stalled since last week over questions of quorum. It was even marred by a near fistfight between Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II and Navotas City Rep. Tobias Tiangco.

Yesterday’s deliberations started only after 3 p.m. when 201 of the 295 members answered the roll call.

Tiangco has vowed to question the quorum every day that Budget Secretary Florencio Abad does not give him a summary of Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) releases.

Abad has sent him a three-inch-thick report detailing thousands of DAP projects and their lawmaker-proponents, but Tiangco said what he needed was a summary.

Tiangco also complained that many names were missing in the proponents’ column in the report he received.

He was told that if such names were not reflected, it means that the project proponents were the implementing agencies.

Gonzales said Tiangco could make the summary himself instead of asking Abad to do it for him.

“All the information he needs is already there. All it takes is a little patience,” he said.

Absentee lawmakers

Gonzales said his absentee colleagues are to blame for the failure of the House to resume budget deliberations.

“We are appealing to them to attend the session and stay with us until the day’s proceedings are finished,” he said.

He added that Belmonte has met with leaders of the various parties making up the majority coalition to ensure attendance.

Gonzales pointed out that the House has the power to order the arrest of absentee members but that it’s an “extreme measure that we don’t want to resort to.”

“That’s why we are appealing to them, we are pleading with them,” he said.

Railroaded budget

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a member of the minority, warned his colleagues that due to the delay, the House might be able to muster a quorum on Friday and “railroad” the approval of the 2015 budget.

Worse, he said the government would be forced to recycle the 2014 funding if Congress fails to approve next year’s outlay.

“This talk about a re-enacted budget is not only baseless but also dangerous, as this would transform the entire budget into President Aquino’s pork barrel no different from the re-enacted budgets of President Arroyo. We will do everything to oppose this,” he said.

He said Congress could hold extra sessions to pass the 2015 spending measure, instead of taking a break this weekend.

He added that it is the majority that should be blamed for the delay in the proceedings due to its failure to muster a quorum.

Undue haste

Colmenares also questioned the majority coalition’s “undue haste” in passing the budget bill.

Gonzales, for his part, said the schedule must be followed, as the House has to pass the budget bill on third reading when it resumes session on Oct. 20 so it can be submitted to the Senate before the end of October.