Senate resumes budget hearings

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will resume its hearings this week on the proposed P3.7-trillion national budget for next year after the impasse between the House of Representatives and Malacañang over the cash-based budgeting system was resolved.

Congress will resume session tomorrow after its two-week break. During the recess, House leaders were at loggerheads with Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who proposed cash-budgeting, which meant agencies will be given funds that they must spend in a year.

As congressmen and Diokno were at a standoff, the Senate suspended its own budget hearings as the chamber can only officially act on the final version that will be submitted by the House.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate finance committee, earlier said the panel will also review the performance of agencies, particularly those that have registered low disbursement rate of funds.

The panel’s subcommittee A will hear tomorrow the proposed budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs and its attached agencies, while subcommittee F will scrutinize the appropriations for the Civil Service Commission, Career Executive Service Board, National Youth Commission, Cooperative Development Authority, Bases Conversion Development Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

On Thursday, the committee will review the proposed budgets of the Office of the President and the Presidential Management Staff.

Salary increase

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has warned that lawmakers’ constituents, not Congress, will be the biggest losers if the national budget is reenacted.

“A reenacted budget would be a bad policy as government agencies will simply operate on the basis of the previous year’s budget and would not be able to respond to the needs of the people,” Salceda said.

A reenacted budget, he added, would endanger the increase in salaries of military and civilian workers, the 2019 elections, hosting of the Southeast Asian Games and expansion of college scholarships to private schools, as well as deprive the people of safety nets against inflation.

Some sectors have expressed fears that the Duterte administration would end up with a reenacted budget due to snags and delays in the deliberation in the House on the proposed cash-based P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget.

Salceda said a reenacted budget sends a wrong signal to investors about the ability of the government to maintain the reform momentum.

He said the uniformed services, among other sectors, would lose much in terms of benefits amounting to P158 billion next year.

Salceda explained that a reenacted budget “cannot authorize the P84 billion in salary increases of military and uniformed personnel (MUP) as provided by House-originated Joint Resolution No. 1.”

“Moreover, the 2018 budget does not provide an item for the Pension Indexation of MUP, which would amount to P40 billion and another P33.8 billion for arrears in the indexation (although lodged in the unprogrammed funds, which may be unlocked by new revenues),” he added.             

Around 1.2 million civil servants, Salceda said, also stand to lose as the 2019 National Expenditure Program (NEP) provides for the 4th tranche of the Salary Standardization law, amounting to P58.1 billion. 

A reenacted budget will also jeopardize the conduct of the 2019 national and local elections, which would require P6 billion, as proposed by the 2019 NEP, he said.

DepEd, DTI

Education and trade officials are attending today’s resumption of budget deliberations.

Secretaries Leonor Briones and Ramon Lopez of the Departments of Education (DepEd) and Trade and Industry (DTI), respectively, are expected to appear before the appropriations committee of Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles. 

House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr., who accompanied Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a meeting with President Duterte in Malacañang, said they will adopt a hybrid budgeting system – or a mix of the cash- and obligation-based schemes – when they resume hearings. 

The Camarines Sur congressman, himself a former budget secretary and former House appropriations committee chairman, said only select departments or projects might implement the obligation-based system – the mode which they have been pushing. 

Tax amnesty

Meanwhile, the House has been urged to pass the Tax Amnesty Bill to mitigate continuous inflation since ordinary Filipinos – and not the rich – bear the brunt of soaring prices of basic commodities. 

“Instead of speeding up the passage of the second package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion bill, we must prioritize the passage of the Tax Amnesty Bill,” House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, author of House Bill 3832, suggested. 

He revealed that the implementation of tax amnesty under Republic Act 9480 that covered 2005 and “prior years” during the presidency of Arroyo netted P5.9 billion in “added revenues.” 

“It accounted for two percent of the total income taxes collected. It also increased the number of registered taxpayers by 20,629 as reported by the Bureau of Internal Revenue,” the lawmaker from Quezon province pointed out. – With Delon Porcalla