The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will get the funds for the salary increase of government workers and the midterm elections’ from government savings if the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) will not be approved by next week, a leader of the Congress said on Wednesday.
During the third bicameral conference committee hearing on the P3.757 trillion national budget, House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rolando Andaya Jr. said Senate Committee on Finance Chairperson Sen. Loren Legarda was assured by Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the DBM can appropriate funds for the Salary Standardization Law IV and the May elections even if Congress delays approving the 2019 GAA.
The Congress will take a break starting February 6 to May 19 for the midterm elections.
According to Andaya, the budget for the May election will be funded through P10 billion of unutilized Comelec funds and other savings while the budget for the salary increase of teachers and other civil servants in government will be sourced from Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF).
Earlier, Andaya said under the 2018 budget, there is P100 billion allocated for salary increases under the MPBF. Congress has approved a joint resolution extending for another fiscal year the 2018 appropriations for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and Capital Outlays (CO).
Andaya said Diokno finally admitted that funds are available for the salary increase and that he can order its release even with stalled budget deliberations.
With this, Andaya said the class suit against Diokno will be now moot and academic.
Andaya recently filed a class suit representing civil servants before the Supreme Court to compel Diokno to implement the fourth tranche on pay hikes for government workers.
Meanwhile, Andaya, during the bicam, proposed the abandonment of a cash-based budget and instead proposed extending the life of the 2019 GAA for two years.
Legarda and Sen. Franklin Drilon were inclined to agree,but Andaya said he will get clearance first from the other senators.
Several lawmakers have expressed their oppositions on the cash-based budget system of the DBM as it slashed budgets of key agencies under the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.