By Bernadette D. Nicolas & Butch Fernandez
THERE will be no special session to finish the passage of the proposed 2019 budget before year-end, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno confirmed on Thursday.
“At the request of the Senate, we decided not to call a special session, and the President agreed. The GAB [General Appropriations Bill] arrived late from the House,” Diokno said.
This means that the government will be operating under a reenacted budget for next year, a first under the Duterte administration.
Senators confirmed on Thursday the government may have to operate under a reenacted budget next month as Congress ran out of time to pass the final version of the
P3.7-trillion budget bill, with lawmakers set to adjourn sessions this week for their traditional Christmas recess from December 15 to January 13, 2019.
Earlier, Diokno had said economic managers were poised to prod President Duterte to call for a special session of Congress next week to pass the bill, even as the House of Representatives formally adjourned sessions on Wednesday.
“Yes. It is going to be a reenacted budget,” Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri told the BusinessMirror late Thursday, adding: “We can’t do anything because there are 10 more department budgets that need to be scrutinized.”
Taking the floor, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr. said, “…After tackling the proposed budget of the Office of the President, we still have to tackle some big ones. Department of Tourism, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Justice—at least the Bureau of Immigration, Commission on Audit, Comelec, Ombudsman, DOH, DND, DILG. And even if the President calls for a special session, even if we extend our session for another five days, for another week, it is impossible, Mr. President, for us to enact the budget bill before the year ends.”
Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito noted that “the House transmitted the 2019 budget bill to the Senate just too late.”
Ejercito added that, in fact, the Senate committee tasked to review the budget bill started work on it earlier. “[We had finished the budget briefings as early as] October.”
Zubiri admitted that “we can’t work on it [budget bill] this Friday because the House had already adjourned, so it will be a reenacted budget the whole of January.”
The Senate Majority leader said “the only way to continue the budget deliberations is to call for a special session,” but added: “it is clear that the House would not meet.”
Economic cost
THE confirmation that there will be no special session comes a day after he said the economic team will recommend that the President call for a special session in a bid to avert the “costly” economic consequences of a reenacted budget.
Citing the latest estimates from the National Economic and Development Authority, Diokno said a reenacted budget could mean a GDP growth in 2019 of between 4.7 percent and 5.9 percent—not hitting even the lower end of target, at 7 percent.
Per Department of Budget and Management estimates, the reenacted budget will also reduce disbursements by P220 billion next year.
As many as 600,000 jobs could be cut. “And worse, it is estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 individuals could be pushed into poverty following the contraction of the budget,” he said on Wednesday.