Reenacted budget seen until August — Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — The government may continue to operate on a reenacted budget, at least until August, and this could affect the country’s growth as it remains uncertain when the Senate and House of Representatives can transmit the P3.7-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2019 to President Duterte for signing into law, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

Lacson said it was unlikely that Senate President Vicente Sotto III would sign the enrolled copy of the GAB after it was learned that the House leadership had been making last-minute amendments to the measure prior to its printing, after it was approved by both chambers of Congress last month.

After it is printed, the measure needs to be signed by Sotto and Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before it will be transmitted to Duterte for his signature.

Lacson has been warning Sotto against signing the GAB, saying it could expose him to possible charges of falsification of legislative documents under the Revised Penal Code.

“All indications point to the country having a reenacted budget at least until August,” he told dzBB.

“We’re like preparing for the situation if (the (House) will insist on amending what we already agreed upon in the bicameral conference committee and the (Senate President) will not sign, there will be no enrolled bill (to transmit),” he said, referring to the joint Senate and House panel that drafted the final version of the GAB.

He said if a stalemate happens, then it would be the leaders of the 18th Congress that will open on the last week of July who will decide on the matter.

Congress is now adjourned to give way to the electoral campaign. It will resume session on May 20 and adjourn sine die on June 7.

Lacson disclosed that he, Sotto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate finance committee, held a “mini-caucus” on Saturday to discuss the matter.

Joining them via teleconference was Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, whom they consulted on the implications of having a reenacted budget this year.

Dominguez warned the group that the economy will contract by 1.5 percent or some P500 million a day.

But Lacson said the senators will not allow Sotto to sign the GAB despite Dominguez’s warning.

Lacson admitted that what was passed by the bicameral conference committee contained lump sum allocations, which are prone to corruption but he added that the argument put forward by Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the appropriations committee, that the House was itemizing the projects to be funded by the lump sums won’t hold water.

Lacson maintained that itemizing the projects was tantamount to amending the GAB after Congress approved it.

Lacson alleged that the last-minute amendments from the House included P72.3 billion worth of allocations in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that were realigned to projects named by House members, such as roads and bridges.

“It’s bad enough that they did not consult or include the DPWH in the planning. Just like that they tinkered (with the budget) whimsically, arbitrarily,” he said.

The House, Lacson said, also “parked” some P20 billion in the DPWH budget to the agency’s central office. This will be allocated for projects that will be endorsed by House members, he added.

Itemized ‘pork’

It’s a vague and opaque P190 billion for just 23 senators versus a detailed P51-billion pork for 292 members of the House or P8.2 billion for each senator as against an average of P174.6 million for every House member. 

“The House did its part. We itemized our amendments. The people should ask the Senate if they did theirs. If the House did not do its duty, then the budget would be vague and opaque,” Andaya insisted. 

Andaya claimed that detailed pork allocations were agreed upon by senators and House members when they ratified the 2019 budget. 

“The itemization was within the parameters of the bicameral committee report ratified by each chamber. The House did not touch the tens of billions in Senate amendments because, per agreement, it was their duty to do such,” the House leader maintained. 

Andaya said he could not understand why the senators could not make good on their end of the bargain.

“As far as the House is concerned, we have all the records to substantiate our stand and the legal basis, as well as the established traditions and practices to back us up,” he said. 

Until now, the lump-sum allocations for senators have remained so despite repeated calls for their itemization, Andaya noted. 

“If the senators really feel that the budget we have ratified is constitutionally infirm and legally flawed, then they can tell the President what specific portions and provisions to veto and we will respect the presidential veto,” Andaya stressed. 

But Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has been blaming Andaya for the delay in the transmittal of the Congress-approved GAB to Malacañang. 

“It has only deepened suspicions that underhanded acts fueled by greed are taking place during this congressional break to ensure that billions of pesos in budgetary outlays are realigned or padded to the pork funds of favored lawmakers,” Villafuerte said. 

Taking the side of Lacson, Villafuerte said the “highly suspicious delay is a blatant violation of the legislative process” especially since the spending bill should be transmitted to the Palace the soonest.        

“What is there to change or finalize in the GAB for weeks on end when it was supposed to have been the final version already that was approved last Feb. 8?” Villafuerte stressed. 

“Why has (the) GAB mysteriously become a work in progress after its final approval by Congress?” he added.

Andaya said the House leadership has been finalizing the GAB for the sake of transparency, Villafuerte observed, “but the only thing that they have done was deepen suspicions that they have been cooking up something this congressional break to further fatten the allocations for favored legislative districts.” – With Delon Porcalla