LOOKING to ensure close coordination with lawmakers in the passage of the 2020 General Appropriations Act, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will wait for the appointment of the House Speaker before endorsing the 2020 budget proposal of P4.1 trillion.
DBM Acting Budget Secretary Janet B. Abuel told reporters on Tuesday the agency has until August 21, 2019, or 30 days after the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), to submit the 2020 budget proposal, but pointed out that the agency will wait until the House of Representatives elects its new Speaker.
This is a step back from the agency’s earlier declaration that it targeted sending the 2020 proposal to the House of Representatives the day after the 2019 Sona on July 22.
The abundant caution apparently stems partly from the ongoing heated speakership race, as well as the bad experience with the 2019 General Appropriations Act, which President Duterte signed only in April, amid a standoff between the House and the Senate over alleged manipulation of the enrolled copy of the bill. This, even though the Executive had submitted the budget proposal to Congress right after Duterte delivered his 2018 Sona.
The expectation then was that the 2019 budget could hurdle congressional approval before the Christmas break, so Duterte could sign it into law by end-2018. Instead, the House took longer than usual to process it, submitting the money measure to the Senate in December.
On Tuesday, Abuel was more confident about their schedule. “We’re on track, [and] within the timeline. Before, I said [we’ll give it] a day after the Sona, but maybe now we’ll have to wait because we need to have a very close coordination with Congress. So we need to wait for their leadership so that [our efforts will not be] put to waste [and that it will be] faster,” Abuel said.
Abuel was apparently referring to the heated race for Speaker, with the President’s allies bitterly split and all jockeying for his endorsement.
Abuel explained that the DBM will not wait for the last day of the deadline to submit the 2020 budget proposal, since everything is “more or less crystallized,” adding that they have set an internal deadline that the budget should be submitted on or before the first half of August.
“Within 30 days from Sona, so we have until August 21. But we will not be waiting that long. We’re targeting, worst case scenario, first half of August because they [the Congress] also have their own timeline,” she added.
Tier 2
SHE pointed out that discussions and coordination with some government agencies still have to be done in line with Tier 2 of the budget proposal, which is being eyed to be finalized this week.
“We’re more positive now. We’re not really fearing [a delay] but we’re preparing for it just in case. That’s why this time we don’t want to rush, we want to wait, instead of submitting the day after [the Sona], even if we are already ready [with the budget proposal]. We want also that, at least we have coordination so that the relationship is better and that the proposed budget will be in a sense preserved as much as possible,” she added.
The DBM said in May that it is targeting to submit the 2020 national budget proposal of P4.1 trillion under a cash-based budgeting system during the Sona of President Duterte in July 22. Abuel explained that the DBM is still pushing for a cash-based budgeting system, but is still studying the transition process since the passage of the 2019 budget bill of P3.7 trillion was delayed.
The proposed 2020 budget of P4.1 trillion is higher by 9.1 percent than the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) of P3.7 trillion.
The delay in passing the 2019 GAA bill —the first budget proposal implementing a cash-based budgeting system under the Duterte administration—forced the government to operate under a 2018 reenacted budget till past the first quarter. This affected the spending plans of the government, especially on its infrastructure projects, and was blamed for the lower-than-expected growth in the first quarter.