THE House of Representatives has rescheduled anew the target approval of the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget.
House Committee on Appropriations Senior Vice Chairman Maria Carmen Zamora, the main plenary sponsor of the national budget, said they will not be able to approve the annual budget this week as the panel’s small committee is still finalizing all differences and amendments to the 2019 national budget.
She said the House will approve and endorse for Senate approval the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Act or the House Bill (HB) 8169 on November 28.
“We’re at the final stages of reconciling differences and amendments to the budget, and after that we need to get the budget printed. Our target for third reading [approval] is on November 28,” said Zamora.
“Unfortunately, we’re still quite in the thick of the amendments. Due to the volume of the amendments requested and agreed upon during the debates over HB 8169 alone, combined with the different agencies’ concerns, we’re still going through items,” Zamora said.
Last week, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr. asked the House of Representatives to approve and transmit immediately the 2019 national budget to the Senate for deliberations.
He said the House should give senators enough time to scrutinize the budget before passing it ahead of Congress’ Christmas break on December 12.
While the Senate has already conducted committee hearings, it could not yet start its plenary deliberations and debates, as it will have to wait for the House-approved version of the 2019 budget. Under the rule the annual appropriation should emanate from the lower chamber.
Meanwhile, Rep. Rolando G. Andaya Jr. said, “We would like to convey our assurance to the Senate that the 2019 national budget bill will be transmitted as soon as we are done with our rigorous double-checking and verification of the thousands of line items in a spending measure that will cost taxpayers almost P3.8 trillion.”
“We believe that we all have sufficient time in our legislative calendar to pass the budget and send it to President Duterte before the end of the year. We are reiterating our strong position against a reenacted budget because such will be hard to implement, will constrict spending and will give wide latitude and discretion to the Executive on what projects to implement,” said Andaya.
The delayed approval of the national budget stemmed from the supposed P52-billion insertions—allegedly by the previous House leadership—prompting the new officers of the chamber to realign the money to other projects and for equitable and fair distribution of funds.
The alleged insertions were already realigned to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund for the rehabilitation of areas badly hit by Typhoon Ompong, especially Cagayan Valley, Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the Department of Health, DOH’s Health Human Resources Development “to stave off the mass layoff of 6,000 nurses, and doctors and dentists, as well,” and capital outlay of state universities and colleges.
The funds were also realigned: to Technical-Vocational Laboratories under the Department of Education; to the program to decongest traffic in urban areas; for roads for identified tourism areas; for roads to trade areas, economic zones, livelihood centers and markets; and for the Department of Agriculture’s farm-to-market roads.