2006 budget may be re-enacted – Drilon

Senate President Franklin Drilon sees a re-enacted budget next year if the impeachment case against President Arroyo is sent to the Senate for trial.

"I do not discount that at this point," he said.

Drilon said the government has worked on a reenacted budget several times in the past when Congress failed to pass the proposed budget at the appropriate time.

"While it is not desired, I don’t think it will cause any substantial damage to us," he said.

"We have done this in the past. In fact, the last budget was reenacted a couple of times. I don’t think this will be critical to our economic program.

"Yes it is desirable that we have a new budget for 2006. But if circumstances prevent us from doing so, I don’t think it will cause, by itself, a collapse in the economy."

Drilon said the executive department would have a lot of leeway to maneuver funds under a reenacted budget, given that a number of projects identified under the previous national budget have already been completed.

"Until we adopt a line-item budget there is always much leeway on the part of the executive in the budget of government," he said.

Funds allocated for a completed project would remain available for disbursal, he added.

In 2004, the government had to work on a reenacted budget after Congress failed to pass a new national budget.

So for two straight years, the government had a working budget of P804 billion until the Senate speeded up passage of the 2005 General Appropriations Act last March.

For the first two months of the year, the government was operating on the 2003 budget.

With the passage of the P907.6 billion national budget for 2005, the government is planning to submit a P1-trillion proposed budget for next year to Congress when Mrs. Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address on July 25. — Marvin Sy