MANILA, Philippines — As the House of Representatives is expected to approve the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020, Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay) said there are no insertions in the proposed budget.
Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, said he was sure that the proposed budget for next year will be approved by Friday.
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"The 2020 budget, I'm sure, will be approved by September 20— the earliest approved budget at the House in history," Salcedas said in a press briefing at Malacañang.
The lawmaker added that the budget proposal will be approved exactly a month after it was submitted last August 20.
He also stressed that there are no insertions in the budget proposal "except for a few words, not a single comma, decimel point, semi-colon is changed."
Salceda, a member of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, said the "Duterte super coalition" at the House wanted to prove that they are working.
The Albay solon also expressed his hope that the "super majority" in the Senate will do the same with their version of the proposed budget.
House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, on the other hand, said the lower chamber of Congress will make changes in the proposed budget to provide funds for education, health, electrification and agriculture.
“These are the only realignments we will introduce when we pass the budget (on second reading) on Friday. None of these will be pork. Our mantra is still no pork, no parking, no delay,” Cayetano told reporters Tuesday. — Patricia Lourdes Viray