House won’t rush Senate on budget

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will not rush the Senate into approving the proposed P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget before the end of the year.

“We will respect the Senate’s timetable on when they will pass the budget,” Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.

“Like any measure, the Senate reviews, and in the process rejects or accepts, the improvements and amendments we have made on the national budget. It is also in the same constructive spirit that we will treat and assess the Senate changes to the national budget when it is sent to a House-Senate conference for reconciliation,” he said.

Andaya made the statement in response to Senate leaders’ fears that they might not be able to pass the budget measure before the end of the year.

His counterpart Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said the government would have to operate on a reenacted 2018 budget at least for January.

The House leader said he and his colleagues are prepared to accept the possibility of recycling this year’s outlay.

“In the event there will be a slight delay in the enactment of the General Appropriations Law for 2019, we are confident that the established rules on the use of the reenacted budget during the short, interim period will apply without affecting the operations of the government, nor curb the delivery of services to the people, or radically set back the timetable of public projects,” he said.

He said the House version of next year’s budget “retains and in some cases augments the funding for all the major programs requested by President Duterte.”

“It is completely aligned with the President’s thrust of using this budget and tax revenues to finance progress and peace. Not one major program of the President was scrapped,” he said.

Andaya pointed out that the House even retained certain projects in the Palace version of the budget that “were not what the people wanted,” but suggested to President Duterte that the “ill-conceived projects be implemented with the strictest oversight.”

“The budget was approved in full compliance with all the rules, laws and jurisprudence in authorizing appropriations and the same fidelity was exercised in crafting the provisions that will guide the budget’s implementation,” he stressed. 

The House approved the 2019 budget on third and final reading last Monday. It was in response to the request of Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Andaya said.

The budget bill will be transmitted to the Senate on Monday.

Zubiri said it is unlikely that they would be able to approve the measure before Congress goes on its month-long Christmas vacation on Dec. 15.