‘Chiz resignation won’t affect budget approval’

MANILA, Philippines - The resignation of Sen. Francis Escudero as finance committee chairman will not affect the consideration and eventual approval of the proposed P3-trillion 2016 national budget, Escudero’s counterpart at the House of Representatives said yesterday.

“I don’t think there will be problem in passing the budget. I believe we can work together with whoever will be the new head of the Senate finance committee,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, said.

“The organization of the Senate is up to them. We are co-equal, separate bodies. We are mandated by the Constitution to study, review and scrutinize the budget. The House will work with whoever is the replacement of Sen. Escudero,” he said.

Following his resignation as finance committee chairman, Escudero also gave up his co-chairmanship of the joint congressional oversight committee on public spending. His co-chairman is Ungab.

There are speculations in the Senate that Sen. Ralph Recto would most likely take over the finance committee chairmanship.

“We laud Sen. Escudero for considering the immediate passage of the 2016 budget proposal in his decision to resign from his assigned committee. We welcome his replacement and assure them of our cooperation in having to pass the budget on time and in ensuring that it will be in accordance with law, rules and Supreme Court rulings on the matter,” Ungab said.

As in the past, he said the House and the Senate would do their best to approve the budget before the end of the year so that funds could be immediately released in January.

He said his committee would start public hearings on the budget proposal on Aug. 10 and would try to finish its job by early October.

In his sixth and last State of the Nation Address on Monday, President Aquino compared his administration with that of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in terms of promptly presenting the annual budget to Congress.

“Under the previous administration, the budget was always reenacted, whether partially or fully. In 2007, for example, it was almost April when the General Appropriations Act (GAA) was approved. It was already worrying that projects that had been completed received funding once more,” he said.

“Even worse: even the maintenance and other operating expenses, including salaries, were included in this reenacted budget. What this means: funds were allotted again for salaries – even if all had already received what was due them for the first three months of 2007. I wonder: Where did the excess funds that were allotted and requested for go?” he said.