^

Headlines

Rolando Andaya sees further delay in 2019 budget enactment

Jess Diaz - The Philippine Star
Rolando Andaya sees further delay in 2019 budget enactment
“We are now actually ready to print the budget. We plan to send it to Malacañang around March 10 or 11, but we received word from the Senate that they are requesting us to hold the printing,” Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., who chairs the House of Representatives appropriations committee, said yesterday.
KJ Rosales

MANILA, Philippines — The enactment of President Duterte’s proposed P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget has already been delayed for more than two months, and now a further delay is in the offing.

“We are now actually ready to print the budget. We plan to send it to Malacañang around March 10 or 11, but we received word from the Senate that they are requesting us to hold the printing,” Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., who chairs the House of Representatives appropriations committee, said yesterday.

Andaya did not give the reason for the senators’ request, but apparently, they want to verify the claim of anti-pork barrel Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the House made changes in the proposed budget after the Senate and the House finally approved it on Feb. 8.

Senate President Vicente Sotto lll has vowed to refuse to sign the printed budget bill that would be sent to the President for his signature if congressmen indeed introduced changes after the measure’s approval.

Those amendments would be unconstitutional and would go against the November 2013 Supreme Court decision outlawing the congressional pork barrel, according to Sotto.

Andaya welcomed the Senate’s request to defer the printing of the budget bill.

“Good for us also because we want to complete the picture. We have no idea up to this point on who the proponents of the Senate amendments were. We are in the dark and we want to verify who among them introduced those amendments,” he said.

Andaya added that the “one-on-one” budget conference between him and his Senate counterpart Loren Legarda in February agreed on at least P99-billion lump-sum realignments in the proposed 2019 budget.

Legarda and he also agreed that senators and House members would itemize projects to support their individual share of such lump sums starting from Feb. 11, three days after the Senate and the House approved the spending bill.

That was what has been taking place for nearly a month now, according to Andaya.

“Nothing illegal, nothing unconstitutional. Nothing the House did which the Senate did not do. It’s all within the framework of the bicameral conference committee report signed by the members of both houses,” Andaya stressed.

If what congressmen did was illegal and unconstitutional, he pointed out that senators are also guilty of going beyond the law and the Constitution.

Andaya faulted Legarda for the apparent confusion among senators on what has been taking place since a month ago.

“I hope my counterpart should have explained (to her colleagues) what we had agreed on,” he said.

The introduction of project details and changes after the budget was approved on Feb. 8 was the illegal and unconstitutional act lawmakers did, according to Lacson.

Andaya said he was ready to convene the bicameral budget conference again to approve the project details supporting lump-sum realignments.

Told that Sotto has vowed not to sign the budget bill, he said, “It’s really up to them.”

Despite the delay in the return of his budget proposal, Duterte, according to his spokesman Salvador Panelo, would not meddle in the Senate-House quarrel and would not ask lawmakers to submit the measure to him soon.

Without this year’s outlay, the government is running on the recycled 2018 appropriations law.

No manipulation

PBA party-list Rep. Mark Aeron Sambar, House committee on appropriations vice chairman, yesterday maintained that no manipulation on the ratified bicameral conference report on the 2019 national budget took place, contrary to the exposé of Lacson.

Sambar said the national budget was line item and could not be manipulated.

“In terms of what House committee on appropriations chair Rep. Rolando Andaya has said, all project are on line item. Others might not have been able to complete. But in terms of manipulation when something was already passed, we’re not doing anything like that,” Sambar said in English and Filipino.

“That cannot happen. There are too many safeguards in the House and the Senate, I don’t think that is possible,” he added.

Lacson earlier described as “clearly unconstitutional” the alleged realignment of the 2019 national budget reportedly on orders of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Lacson said Arroyo and other members of the House of Representatives have no business manipulating the ratified bicameral report on the P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget prior to the printing and enrollment of the budget measure.

Sambar said if ever there will be changes in the 2019 national budget, it could be meant to make it more transparent and comprehensive.

“Perhaps, what is for Barangay 231 should be for Barangay 123, which is the same amount and the same item. As chairman Andaya said, we want to be transparent and very detailed and meticulous,” he said.

“We are trying to facilitate everything as soon as possible. The budget is very complicated and comprehensive every year,” he said.

Sambar said he has no idea who could be Lacson’s source.

“I have not heard the information passed to Senator Lacson,” he said.

Palace hopeful

Meanwhile, Malacañang remains hopeful that Congress will make good on its promise to submit the ratified version of the 2019 budget within the next days despite reports of last-minute insertions from some members of the House of Representatives.

Panelo gave the statement amid fears that the continuing use of the reenacted budget might derail the administration’s Build Build Build program.

“Let’s just wait for one or two days, let’s see because they are the ones talking about it, we are just waiting. But I’m confident that it will be submitted to us anytime this week or the following (days),” he said.

Panelo said Duterte would wait for the transmission of the national budget after the lawmakers settle their differences.

“(The President) will not interfere with their intramurals. They will have to settle whatever conflict they have among themselves,” he said.– With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Christina Mendez

2019 NATIONAL BUDGET

ROLANDO ANDAYA JR.

SUPREME COURT

  • Latest
  • Trending
Latest
Recommended
Are you sure you want to log out?
X
Login

Philstar.com is one of the most vibrant, opinionated, discerning communities of readers on cyberspace. With your meaningful insights, help shape the stories that can shape the country. Sign up now!

Get Updated:

Signup for the News Round now

FORGOT PASSWORD?
SIGN IN
or sign in with
-->