AS the House of Representatives is about to resume budget deliberations next week, Malacañang on Thursday maintained that there is still “no compromise” to break the deadlock on the proposed 2019 budget.
The statement came after the supposed meeting of Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea and Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III last week on the budget impasse.
Diokno also confirmed on Thursday that he will be talking with Medialdea and Dominguez on Friday afternoon regarding the budget issue.
House Majority Floor Leader Rolando G. Andaya Jr. said last week that the House will resume its budget deliberations after reaching a “compromise” with the Palace, adding that the President even promised to talk to Diokno and Dominguez to see if a compromise could be struck to break the impasse.
Contrary to the claim of Andaya, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said it is “good” that the budget hearing will resume, but stressed that he was not aware of any deal or agreement made by Diokno on a possible compromise.
“As far as I know, nothing has changed on the budget. It’s still the same budget that we submitted,” Roque told reporters in a chance interview. Sought for clarification if the House will be discussing a cash-based budget, Roque said: “They will be discussing the budget as submitted by Malacañang.”
The Executive submitted a cash-based budget for 2019 on July 23 on the day of the President’s third State of the Nation Address.
Due to the House’s opposition to the cash-based budgeting system, the House Committee on Appropriations temporarily suspended the deliberations for the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget.
‘Hybrid’
However, Andaya said last week that the Palace and the House of Representatives have agreed that the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) will adopt a “hybrid” of cash-based and obligation-based budgeting system.
Earlier, Andaya also said the House is awaiting the original budget proposals from government agencies to find out the projects that were removed by the Department of Budget and Management due to the shift to a cash-based budgeting system in 2019.
According to the schedule released by the House Press and Public Affairs Bureau, the allocation for the Departments of Trade and Industry and of Education will undergo scrutiny on August 28.
The schedule released by the House also indicated that the hearings on the budgets of the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President, Departments of the Interior and Local Government and of National Defense will be held on August 29.
Budget deliberations for the Departments of Labor and Employment and of Foreign Affairs is also scheduled on August 30.
The budget hearings for the Departments of Information and Communications Technology and of Health (DOH) are set on September 3; Civil Service Commission, Commission on Human Rights, Department of Science and Technology, and the Judiciary on September 4; and the Presidential Communications Operations Office and the Department of Transportation on September 5.
Last week Roque said in a briefing that Medialdea and the economic managers were in discussion.
Although he was made aware of Andaya’s statements, Roque has since said nothing has changed on the position of the Executive and the economic managers to keep the cash-based budgeting system.
Diokno has also defended the revolutionary shift from obligation-based budgeting to cash-based budgeting as being necessary to fast-track the completion of projects.
Under a cash-based budgeting system, the projects listed in the budget must be fully delivered, inspected and accepted by the end of the fiscal year.
Payment should also be done within the fiscal year and up to a three-month extended payment period after the fiscal year for goods and services accepted by December 31 of the fiscal year. On the other hand, under obligation-based budgeting system, contracts awarded within the fiscal year can be delivered even after the end of the year. Inspection, verification and payment can also be done within and beyond the end of the fiscal year.