Alan Peter Cayetano to colleagues: Submit ‘amendments’ to 2020 budget

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is calling on his 299 other colleagues in the House of Representatives to submit their individual “institutional amendments” to the 2020 national budget which the chamber approved in “record time” Friday night.

“I enjoin our colleagues to submit your amendments and as we are gracious enough to talk to secretaries about concerns regarding our districts, yet as policy questions, I ask you to also file your version of institutional amendments,” he told them during plenary session.

Institutional amendments refer to funds downloaded in various agencies like public works, health and social welfare departments where allocated funds for House members can be transferred or modified during closed-door bicameral conference committee deliberations.

The Taguig congressman said former senator and now House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda – who was Senate finance committee chair in the Senate’s 17th Congress – had already “submitted” her proposed institutional amendments.

“By no means are these revenue bills also perfect. We have to continue to fine-tune it to ensure that we have a just and equitable system of taxation in our country,” Cayetano said. 

The House approved the P4.1-trillion budget measure with an overwhelming 257-6 vote.

“Governance is not an individual sport but a team sport. So let us congratulate each other and not just any one member of Congress,” he said. “This 18th Congress, with open ears, and open mind, we will accept and look at each and every amendment with consensus.” 

On concerns that some lawmakers might introduce insertions in the budget, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles said President Duterte will not think twice about using his veto powers.

His assurance was in reaction to Rep, Joey Salceda’s revelations that lawmakers are entitled to a P100-million allocation under the 2020 budget.

“I heard some of his interview in media, these are itemized in the budget so it cannot be considered as pork. So if it’s itemized and it’s identified, maybe, it cannot be helped that the representatives of Congress can appeal for budgets that will benefit their districts, their sectors or their constituents,” Nograles said.

Cayetano, meanwhile, said there has been “consensus” on their plan to augment by P7 billion the budget for farmers who are now reeling from low prices of palay due to the effects of the Rice Tariffication law.

Cayetano said Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who heads the House appropriations committee, has already “found” P3 billion to raise the P10 billion that lawmakers want to allocate for the farmers.

House Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte, for his part, said the House will initiate regular meetings not only with officials of the executive branch, but also with the Senate to speed up the approval of the Duterte administration’s priority measures.

Administration priority measures include among others House Bill 4157 or the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform (CITIRA), approved on third and final reading last Sept. 13; and HB 1026, or the new Sin Tax bill on alcoholic drinks and electronic cigarettes, which was approved on third and final reading last Aug. 20. The bill aims to substantially raise excise taxes on alcohol products, including “alcopops,” and e-cigarettes such as heated tobacco and vapor (vaping) products.

Villafuerte, deputy speaker for finance, is one of the authors of the consolidated bills on CITIRA, Sin Tax bill and other priority measures.

“We need to relax the restrictions in doing business in the country that have become deal-breakers for foreign investors despite the Philippines’ emergence as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia,” Villafuerte said.

December bicam

The Senate leadership, for its part, is eyeing a bicameral conference on the approved budget program by the first week of December. The swift passage of the budget by the House of Representatives, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said, will make it easier for the Senate to approve its version of the budget program.

Although the Senate finance committee and other subcommittees have been conducting hearings on budgets, Sotto said it would not be until the resumption of session on Nov. 5 that their budget reports could be submitted for plenary discussions. Congress is set to go on break from Oct. 5 to Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology has set aside a total of P1.2 billion in next year’s budget for the establishment of free internet WiFi hotspots across the country, as ordered by President Duterte.

“The amount is on top of the P1.2 billion earmarked this year (2019) to build additional access points where Filipinos may freely connect to the internet via their mobile devices,” Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. disclosed.

This amount was specified in DICT’s report submitted to Congress, where the agency revealed it has installed since April “password-free WiFi hotspots” in 2,330 sites covering all 17 regions across 73 provinces in over 640 municipalities and cities nationwide.

He said the fresh funding for the free internet WiFi Connectivity in Public Places Project is lodged in the DICT budget in the proposed P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2020.

“Money for the project is being sourced from the Free Public Internet Access Fund,” Campos said. — Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte-Felipe