Senators blame House for budget OK delay

Four senators crossed party lines yesterday to blame their counterparts in the House of Representatives for the eight-month delay in the passage of the P1-trillion national budget for 2006 as the congressional row turned for the worse.

Sen. Richard Gordon said it was unfair to fault the Senate for the delay, adding that the Senate — now that Congress has adjourned for the Lenten break — should not be pressured to pass the bill.

Gordon said the Senate "has done its part in reviewing the budget" when it convened into a Committee of the Whole in a bid to speed up its passage.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Senators Manuel Villar Jr. and Rodolfo Biazon also took Gordon’s stand.

Pimentel said the 2006 outlay was held up because of the House’s failure to meet the October deadline set under the original legislative calendar.

"It looks as if they want to make it appear that if we (at the Senate) do not yet have an approved budget by now, that it is the fault of the Senate. That’s unfair," Pimentel said.

The House passed the budget bill on third and final reading only on the eve of the adjournment of Congress last Wednesday.

Villar, chairman of the committee on finance, noted that the budget has been with the House since August last year.

He blamed congressmen for "sitting on the budget" for the past eight months, adding this may force the government to work under a reenacted budget for the entire year.

The budget bill has faced delays for the third straight year, he pointed out.

"Beyond the first quarter, it’s definitely too late already... As usual, we in the Senate are pressed for time. The budget was submitted to the House as early as August 2005, so it took them almost eight months (to approve it)," Villar said.

"I find it ridiculous that congressmen will ask us to pass the budget quickly when they submitted the budget on the day that Congress adjourned," Villar said.

Pimentel recommended to his colleagues to continue working on the proposed General Appropriations Act 2006 even if Congress is in recess in order to speed up its passage.

"It would be advisable for the Senate finance committee to conduct hearings during the recess after the Holy Week to offset the delay in the submission of the bill to the chamber," Pimentel stressed.

Villar, on the other hand, vowed that the Senate would do its best to pass the budget within a month shortly after Congress resumes session on May 15.

Davao Oriental Rep. Joel Mayo Almario has said the budget’s quick passage through the Senate would prevent the continued operation of the government under a reenacted 2005 budget, which the opposition fears the Arroyo administration could use to fund Charter change.

Pimentel accused the President and her legislative allies of maneuvering to derail the approval of the budget, resulting in the automatic reenactment of last year’s P900 billion budget effective Jan. 1, 2006.

According to Pimentel, a reenacted 2005 budget would virtually become a presidential pork barrel, in which Mrs. Arroyo will have the full discretion to release reallocated funds for projects already completed during the previous year.

"The President will be free to realign billions of pesos under the reenacted budget — euphemistically called savings — to projects or activities that catch her fancy," Pimentel said, adding that the activities include Charter change.

Like Almario, House Deputy Majority Leader Antonio Cerilles asked the Senate to forgo its series of investigations and focus on passing of the outlay.

Almario and Cerilles’ statements worsened the rift between the two legislative branches that followed the Senate’s resolution a few weeks ago, expressing strong objection to the administration-backed plans to change the Constitution without the participation of senators.

This move fueled speculations that President Arroyo and House Speaker Jose de Venecia were bound to push for a unicameral form of government that will effectively abolish the Senate.

The Chief Executive’s lack of support for the Senate was deemed to have started when Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senators Pangilinan, Biazon and Manuel Roxas asked for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation at the height of allegations that she cheated in the 2004 presidential election.

Hidden items?

Pimentel, meanwhile, had advised his staff to secure a copy of the House-approved budget bill and scrutinize the measure while Congress is in recess.

However, Pimentel cautioned the Senate against being rushed into approving the budget bill especially because there are "hidden items" that may have been inserted by the House.

Upon his suggestion, Pimentel said the Senate had convened into a committee of the whole that conducted daily hearings on the appropriations of various government agencies in a bid to speed up approval of the budget.

"It’s simply sickening that the House approved the budget only when we were about to adjourn and go on recess and therefore could not act on the measure as we had wanted to," he lamented.

Under the proposed 2006 national budget, the Department of Education gets the lion’s share with P119.1 billion. The Department of Public Works and Highways takes the second largest allocation with P62.3 billion, followed by National Defense with P46.6 billion, Department of the Interior and Local government, P45.6 billion; Department of Agriculture, P15.6 billion; Department of Transportation and Communications, P14.3 billion. The Department of Health will get P10.6 billion.

As in previous years, debt service payments corner 33 percent or one-third of the budget with P340 billion.