Congress to approve 2020 budget on Monday

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives and the Senate have agreed to approve a common draft of the proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget next week despite passing widely disparate versions of the outlay.            

“The bicameral conference committee will finish its job on Monday and both chambers will ratify its report (containing the common version) on the same day,” Rep. Joey Salceda of Albay told reporters yesterday.

He said the approved version would be on the desk of President Duterte for his scrutiny before Dec. 21.

Salceda sits in the House contingent in the conference, which Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab of Davao City heads, while his Senate counterpart Sonny Angara is co-chair.

Reached for comment, Ungab said, “Yes, Monday is the target.” 

The joint chairmen and the rest of the conference panel tasked to reconcile the divergent House and Senate versions of the proposed budget held their first meeting last Friday. The panel authorized Ungab and Angara to continue the reconciliation talks.

Ungab and Angara met again on Tuesday while Typhoon Tisoy was pummeling Southern Luzon. Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano attended their meeting.

Sources said the agreement to approve a common version of the proposed budget for next year on Monday was arrived at during this meeting.

“We cannot afford another delay in the enactment of the national budget,” Salceda said.            

The President signed the 2019 national budget in April after vetoing or deleting P95 billion worth of realignments made by the House. 

Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman said the tedious process of releasing funds, obligating them and conducting bidding added several more months to the delay.

“That in turn took its toll on the economy, which lost at least P500 billion a month and whose growth slowed down in the first and second quarters, before recovering in the third quarter,” he said.

Salceda said the Ungab-Angara panels have committed to work overtime to reconcile the disparate House and Senate versions of the 2020 budget.

“They have agreed to use the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is the President’s original budget proposal, as a starting point, instead of the House or Senate versions. From there, they will consider the amendments proposed by each chamber,” he said.

Asked if there would be no legal question in using the NEP as basis for discussion since it was not the version approved by the either chamber, Salceda said, “Well, the bicam (conference committee) is considered the third chamber (of Congress).”

In its version of the budget, the House made P9.5 billion in realignments. On the other hand, the Senate realigned a total of P206 billion, including P3 billion from the National Food Authority’s palay procurement fund, reducing it to P7 billion.

Some congressmen are proposing the return of the P3-billion cut, but the Senate is insisting on diverting the money to the state-owned Land Bank.

The STAR learned that under a special provision the Senate included in the diversion, Land Bank would lend the P3 billion to local government units (LGUs) for buying palay from farmers in their areas.

House members expressed fears that local politics would come into play if LGUs were given palay funds, since certain local officials could choose to procure only from their rice farmer-supporters.

Education, social programs

The Senate has realigned billions of pesos in the P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2020 from underspending agencies to various underfunded education, social and health programs listed in the proposed national budget.

The realignments were made before the chamber approved the GAB last Nov. 27. The Senate and the House of Representatives have convened the last week the bicameral conference committee – composed of representatives from both chambers – to iron out conflicting provisions of their respective versions of the money measure.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Angara, chairman of the finance committee, in separate interviews said they do not expect any major delays in the proceedings of the bicameral panel. The final version of the GAB may be ratified next week.

Angara said the Senate amendments were mostly to benefit provisions on education, health, agriculture, labor and government salaries, particularly for nurses.

The realignments were proposed as institutional amendments by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, including an additional P500 million for the Department of Agriculture’s Agripreneurship program, and another P500 million for its National Soil Health Program.

The Department of Education (DepEd)’s school-based feeding program was increased by P1 billion or to its proposed funding of P6.974 billion.

The DepEd’s quick response fund (QRF) for the repair and replacement of classrooms and other facilities damaged during calamities was doubled from P2 billion to P5 billion.

Lacson, however, sourced the additional funding from other DepEd programs that are not being fully implemented due to poor spending by the agency, such as school building program, which had an average disbursement rate of only 14.98 percent.

The senator lopped off a whopping P14 billion from the DepEd’s Basic Education Facilities Program, and moved this to the QRF, the Last Mile Schools program and state universities and colleges. 

The Department of Health’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program, whose allocation was cut by the Department of Budget of Management from P15.92 billion this year to P5.9 billion in 2020, was given an increase of P1 billion.