JDV vows budget passage

Speaker Jose de Venecia said yesterday the proposed P864.8-billion budget for 2004 will most likely be approved by the House of Representatives tomorrow after a two-week delay caused by the impeachment crisis.

"We will muster all the support we can get (among the 226 congressmen) to ensure budgetary allocation for agencies of government," he said, adding that "an overwhelming majority of the parties favor the fast approval of the budget."

The House began marathon deliberations on the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2004 last week to rush its approval before the end of the month.

Anticipating a delay in the approval of the proposed national budget, the House approved last week a P5.25-billion supplemental budget proposed by appropriations committee chairman Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr.

De Venecia earlier said dealing with the second impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. has delayed the House’s deliberations on the budget by more than two weeks.

In his resolution, Andaya said the P5.25 billion supplemental budget is necessary to "meet the urgent budgetary requirement which cannot be postponed without causing detriment to government operations."

The supplemental budget measure provides P100 million to fund the implementation of the Absentee Voting Act of 2003, P2.2 billion for soldiers’ pay hike and some P3.225 billion for the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The Comelec appropriation consists of some P3.026 billion for next year’s elections, P100 million for the overseas voting law and some P98 million for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said House leaders are working double time to have the GAA approved.

Andaya also said that though the proposed budget is P864.8 billion, the government can only raise P671.2 billion next year, forcing it to borrow at least P1 billion a day to bridge the deficit and pay part of the P3.2 trillion national debt.

He said he is batting for a debt cap bill pending in Congress to lighten the burden on the people, who shoulder the government’s huge borrowings.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said Friday that the budget will not be enacted before yearend because the Senate will not have enough time to discuss the bill before it adjourns for the holidays.

At a press conference, Drilon said senators will just approve the P5-billion supplemental budget in the bicameral conference committee by Feb. 6.

He said Andaya told him Friday morning that the printed copy of the GAA will get to the Senate only on the second week of December.

"We therefore have no time, absolutely no time to work on the 2004 budget and submit it on the floor," Drilon said.

He explained that the second week of December is already a month late for the usual submission of the proposed budget to the Senate.

"We usually receive the version from the House about mid-November and we would put it on the floor for debates about the first week of December. In this case, we will be receiving the printed copy or the third reading copy as approved about middle of December already. So, there will absolutely be no time for us," Drilon said.

The Senate chief said that President Arroyo has already been informed about this latest development.

"The President said she can live with the reenacted 2003 General Appropriations Act. But we expect the budget to be passed probably before we adjourn on Feb. 6, 2004," he said.

Drilon assured the public though that the Senate will work hard in the last three weeks of January to ensure that the supplemental budget is passed on or before Feb. 6, 2004.

He could not say whether there would be minor or major cuts in the budget because "we have not really seen the budget coming from the House." — Paolo Romero