P9.5-billion budget realignments legal — House leaders

MANILA, Philippines — Leaders of the House of Representatives yesterday defended the chamber’s decision to realign up to P9.5 billion in appropriations in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year.

A select committee made the changes after the proposed outlay was approved on third and final reading last Sept. 20, a move that did not sit well with some senators.

The panel was composed of Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, appropriations committee chairman Rep. Isidro Ungab of Davao City, other members of the majority and representatives of the minority.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who chairs the committee on ways and means, yesterday said the creation of the small committee “for institutional and individual amendments to the 2020 general appropriations bill was a plenary decision.”

“If we are to refresh the public’s memory, this is not the first time that the creation of a small committee was resorted to. This is for facility and for practical purposes. Not all 299 members of the House can sit down together and finalize all the amendments to the bill,” he said.

He said delegating to such a panel some of the duties the House could not do in plenary “is a practice that has been done in past years, as far back as the 8th Congress.”

“We appeal to the Senate to observe inter-parliamentary courtesy and allow us to do our work first. Their turn to scrutinize the budget bill will come when we formally transmit it to them on Oct. 1,” he added.

Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman said the realignments were augmentations given to several agencies.

“We don’t see anything wrong with increasing the palay procurement fund by P3 billion to P10 billion to help our farmers, whose produce is being bought at record low levels. We are hoping the additional money could boost the buying price for palay to the benefit of our farmers,” he said.

He said part of the P200-million augmentation for the Department of Health would be used by the agency in combatting the polio outbreak and the continuing threat of dengue.

A big part of the additional P500 million for the Philippine General Hospital is intended as assistance to indigent patients, Romero added.

“I don’t think anyone could argue against or oppose those augmentations, whose intended beneficiaries are mostly our poor people,” he stressed.

Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales said the House has consistently been creating a select committee to process individual amendments, after approving the annual budget on third and final reading.

“The final reading approval has always been on the condition that the small panel would still introduce some adjustments it deemed necessary,” he said.

Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte accused Panfilo Lacson of doing a “political hatchet job” with his allegation that the House is allocating additional P1.5 billion to each of its 22 deputy speakers and P700 million to its 300 members.

In a statement, Villafuerte accused Lacson of having a “personal agenda... to make the Senate look good at the expense of the current House leadership.”

“At first we were puzzled why Lacson would come out with his fabricated allegations. We thought it was a political misunderstanding, but now it has become clear that his goal is to carry out a political hatchet job against the House and its members,” he said.

Lawmakers earlier challenged Lacson to disclose the source of his information, which he took back, and for which he later apologized.

Another lawmaker, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, also slammed Lacson for “rumor-mongering.”

“Rumor-mongering has no place in legislative work. Rumors cannot be basis for scrutinizing laws. Peddling rumors is not the handiwork of esteemed senators. That job is reserved for fishwives,” he stressed.

The lawmakers made the statements after Lacson continued to attack House members despite an agreed ceasefire by leaders of both chambers of Congress.

“Ceasefire would have been OK, but there should be really no statements for the meantime,” Defensor told reporters.

Senate and House leaders, specifically Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Romualdez, reportedly agreed to a truce when they met Wednesday night during the birthday celebration of Sen. Bong Revilla.

But the following day, Lacson continued to attack House members who demanded that he apologize for the accusation that he has since taken back.

“If it’s about protecting the national budget from the scheming and abusive congressmen who think that by harassing me, I will cave in and stop, they’re wrong because I’m prepared to fight to the death, in a manner of speaking,” Lacson said in his Twitter account.