House resumes budget hearings Tuesday

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will resume hearings on the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 on Tuesday after a three-week standoff with Malacañang on Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s cash-budgeting scheme.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, appropriations committee chairman, yesterday said his panel would start with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Education (DepEd), followed by the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President, Department of Interior and Local Government and Department of National Defense on Wednesday.

He said on deck on Thursday are the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Subsequent hearings, Nograles said, would tackle funding for the judiciary, Department of Transportation, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Information and Communications Technology and Department of Health (DOH).

The House is resuming its budget deliberations after Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. met with President Duterte to explain the opposition of the House to Diokno’s cash-based budgeting proposal.

Andaya, who was Arroyo’s budget secretary when she was president, said under the proposal, agencies would be required to not only obligate funds but to spend them for  projects, programs or activities within the fiscal year.

Otherwise, the funds would revert to the national treasury, he said.

He said the House prefers the present system of obligation-based budgeting, which gives agencies two years to spend their money and implement projects.

He added that the two-year implementation period allows for delays caused by unforeseen factors like bad weather and road right-of-way issues.

Andaya revealed that a mix of cash and obligation budgeting was the compromise reached during their meeting with Duterte.

Diokno, who was not present in the meeting, had said he would not budge from his proposal.