Duterte wants to sign 2019 budget on December 15

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte wants to sign the proposed P3.575-trillion 2019 national budget into law on Dec. 15 so there would be no need to reenact this year’s outlay, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said yesterday.

“We have already sent the budget bill to the Senate. The ball is now in the senators’ court,” Salceda said in a television interview.

He said budget reenactment “is bad policy and bad for the economy.”

“Based on calculations made by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), if the P3.767-trillion 2018 budget were recycled, only P3.3 trillion would be available for spending. The balance of P467 billion would not be reenacted. That is P467 billion taken away from the economy. The negative effect would be 1.2-1.5 percent in growth,” he added.

Senators earlier warned of the possibility of a budget reenactment because they lack time to approve the proposed 2019 outlay. Last week, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said with the delay, the nation would have to operate on a recycled 2018 budget in January.

But on Thursday, Zubiri said he and his colleagues have agreed to work 12 hours a day starting next week to tackle the spending bill so it could be signed before yearend.

Duterte’s Dec. 15 signing timeline means that the Senate would have fewer than 10 days to discuss and approve next year’s budget, since Congress, under its calendar, is set to go on its month-long Christmas recess on the day the President reportedly wishes to sign the spending measure.

The remaining 10 days of sessions include time to be spent for a bicameral conference that would reconcile the House and Senate versions of the budget.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson has vowed to scrutinize the outlay for hidden pork barrel funds.

Salceda said the disagreement between congressmen and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on the latter’s “cash-based budgeting” innovation caused a two-week delay in deliberations on the 2019 spending bill.

“And then we discovered P52 billion that could not be supported. We decided to realign this huge amount on Oct. 11, when we approved the budget on second reading, provided that the list of projects and programs to be funded will come from Malacañang, since this is their proposed outlay. The list never came. Preparation of the third-reading copy (of the budget bill) was delayed for one month,” he said.

Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said the DBM has not explained who inserted the P52 billion in the Palace version of the budget.