THE chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations on Monday has protested the withdrawal of House Bill 4228 or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for FY 2020, with a warning to peers this could “derail” the budget bill despite earlier assurances by House leaders they can still meet their targets for sending it to the Senate.
As fears of another budget delay stoked bad memories of how the four-month delay in the 2019 budget had caused the weaker-than-expected economic growth in the first quarter, other lawmakers warned that the sudden withdrawal of HB 4228 may be a prelude to a “pork insertion” exercise, or an indication of the still-bitter infighting among those who fought for the speakership.
Late Monday afternoon, however, speaker Alan Peter Cayetano declared a deadline for Executive submissions, in an apparent bid to allay fears of a delay in the budget process.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the formal referal of the 2020 GAB to the House Committee on Appropriations will be done after the submission of all government departments and agencies of their written presentations of their respective budget proposals on Tuesday.
“I have requested all departments and agencies to submit the written presentations of their respective budget proposals before 5 p.m. Tuesday, September 3, in line with the commitment of the House leadership to the President that the approval of the 2020 General Appropriations Bill will be swift and timely,” Cayetano said in a statement following a meeting with members of the appropriations commmittee.
“Thereafter, the rules committee will refer the 2020 GAB to the committee on appropriations for its consideration,” he added, saying already sorted out all issues as to the procedure and goals for the 2020 budget.
In the meeting presided by the Speaker and attended by House leaders and vice chairs of the appropriations committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, the lawmakers threshed out the misunderstandings and confusion that have arisen during the budget deliberations.
Earlier, Ungab has confirmed he had tasked the committee to file House Bill 4228 on August since the budget briefing by agencues are scheduled to be finished by Friday.
Under the legislative process, the bill is filed with the Bills and Index Service and the same in numbered and reproduced. Three days after its filing, the same is included in the Order of Business for First Reading.
On first reading, the secretary general reads the title and number of the bill and the speaker refers the bill to appropriate committee/s.
Cayetano also assured the public that budget will be scrutinized but will not be delayed and will be transparent.
“Pork and parking have no place in the 2020 budget. The House will ensure the passage of a national budget that is constitutional, legal, transparent and accountable,” he added.
The bill on the P4.1-trillion budget was scheduled for first reading last August 28, but was pulled out just before this.
In a letter to Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Davao City Rep. and appropriations panel chief Isidro Ungab said withdrawal of the GAB will derail the approval of the 2020 national budget.
“Your proposal to withdraw and amend the General Appropriations Bill for FY 2020 will definitely derail the schedule and approval of the budget. The staff are now all busy preparing for the plenary and pre-plenary deliberations, gathering data and reports requested by members of the House related to the budget. To prepare another set of General Appropriations Bill will require enormous time, efforts and resources that will surely affect or delay the passage of the 2020 budget,” Ungab said.
According to Ungab, any alteration of the National Expenditure Program or NEP, which is the version of the revised General Appropriations Bill, will surely raise doubts on the proceedings; and the House will be questioned about why it will alter the proposed budget prepared by the Executive Department.
Ungab said it is established procedure to prepare the GAB immediately after submission by the Executive department, noting that the printing of the bill at the APO Production Unit of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) is almost finished.
“The established procedure and practice of the Committee on Appropriations in the House of Representatives is to prepare the General Appropriations Bill or GAB immediately after submission by the Executive department of the National Expenditure Program or NEP. The GAB which is prepared by the Committee Secretariat is a faithful copy of the NEP,” said Villafuerte, adding “The printing of the General Appropriations Bill is almost finished at the APO-Neda, the copies of which can be immediately distributed to the members of the House of Representatives once delivered.”
Ungab said the last day of the briefings of the proposed 2020 budget is on September 6, and the preparation of the Committee Report will be on September 10.
“Plenary deliberations [are] also scheduled to start on September 12, 2019, until October 4, 2019, which is the planned approval of the GAB on third and final reading. We prepared this schedule of activities in order to approve the 2020 budget on time before our break on October 5, 2019,” he added.
For his part, House Committee on Appropriations Senior Vice Chairman Joey Salceda said budget briefings in the lower chamber will go on but “the significant implication is we can’t go to the floor without the GAB referred to committee, approved by committee, and passed through House Committee on Rules.”
Based on the schedule of activities, the appropriations committee will deliberate the 2020 NEP starting August 22 to September 9, while the approval of the committee report will be on September 11.
The proposed 2020 General Appropriations Act is expected to be approved on third and final reading on October 4. Then, the House will transmit it to the Senate for its own deliberations on October 8.
The Congress is eyeing to submit the 2020 national budget to President Duterte on December 20.
“Pork free”
For his part, Villafuerte said the House remains fully committed to the timely and transparent passage of the 2020 GAB.
However, Villafuerte said the House leadership is targeting the chamber’s action on the 2020 GAB by end-October without “short-circuiting” the normal legislative process for this bill’s committee and plenary approval as enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.
“This legislative process must not be done with undue haste or making a mockery of the House’s constitutional power of the purse.”
Ungab filed GAB 2020 as House Bill 4228 on first reading last August 28. Villafuerte ordered the withdrawal of HB 4228 that same night, supposedly upon the Speaker’s order.
Villafuerte said he moved for HB 4228’s withdrawal in the belief that it was a “premature” filing of the budget bill on first reading, considering that all departments and other agencies of the government have yet to finish presenting their respective budget proposals at that time.
“The bill’s withdrawal was not an issue; it was just a procedural matter as the presentation of the budget proposals of all government offices before the House appropriations committee have yet to be completed at the time of HB 4228’s filing on first reading,” he added.
“In fact, the remaining offices that have yet to present their 2020 budget proposals are expected to finish doing so by the end of this workweek yet—so how can the House appropriations committee submit HB 4228 without having heard the presentations of all government agencies covered by the proposed 2020 GAA [General Appropriations Act]?” he asked.
He said that after the Executive Department’s submission of the NEP to the Congress, it is up to the House of Representatives—given its power of the purse as vested in it by the 1987 Constitution—is supposed to craft the GAB based on, among others, the respective budgetary proposals of all government agencies.
“There is no approved GAB yet, so there is no such thing as congressional insertions at this stage,” he said. “Congressional insertions are budgetary amendments that certain lawmakers insert on the sly after a consolidated GAB has already been passed by both chambers—a post-ratification process that the Supreme Court had struck down and which certain House leaders resorted to in the 17th Congress and that led to the delay in the approval of the 2019 budget.”
Villafuerte said the 2020 GAB could be refiled within the week after the budget presentation of government agencies.
Also, Villafuerte said several lawmakers were “dissatisfied” with several items in the 2020 national budget.
He added lawmakers are questioning the inequitable distribution of allocations for their districts.
Prelude for pork?
House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said the withdrawal of the GAB while deliberations are still ongoing may be a prelude for pork barrel insertions.
“This development is quite alarming, even disturbing. It smells like the greasy patronage pork is being put into the oven. In light of this we are calling for a suspension of the budget deliberations until the 2020 GAB, as originally based from the NEP submitted by Malacañang, is refiled,” he said.
“We also need to scrutinize the GAB that will be refiled to see if indeed more pork, amorphous lump-sum funds or intelligence and confidential funds have been added to the budget,” added Zarate.
Speakership fight?
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite on Monday said the current brouhaha on the 2020 GAB may be a result of the last speakership fight.
“As can be seen, Rep. L Ray Villafuerte is associated with Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, while House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Isidro Ungab is associated with Rep. Paolo Duterte and Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and this intramurals on the 2020 budget is a manifestation of the fight between their principals,” said Gaite.
Earlier, Paolo Duterte backed out from the race and supported the speakership bid of Ungab from the Hugpong ng Pagbabago party founded by his sister Sara. However, President Duterte endorsed the speakership of Cayetano.
“The more than 20 deputy speakers is also a manifestation of this fight and created another layer of bureaucracy in Congress, as well as a means to look into the work of the chairmen of the committees. It is like having a shadow government in Congress,” he added.
Gaite said different conflicting ruling factions in Congress “now have their own priorities and pet initiatives, so the issue of allotting or inserting pork is always an issue in the national budget.”
“We hope that the budget impasse would be settled with the Filipino people’s interest that is upheld and not the pork of a few politicians,” said Gaite.