Velasco calls for resumption of House session to tackle budget

Releasing a statement the other night, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco said: “I have been silent during the duration of the gentleman’s agreement in deference and respect to the sitting Speaker. My silence does not mean I am disinterested nor have I turned my back on the covenant.”
Lord Allan Jay Velasco/Facebook

MANILA, Philippines — Speakership aspirant Rep. Lord Allan Velasco (Marinduque) is calling for the resumption of session in the House of Representatives to reopen debates on the proposed 2021 national budget, which were abruptly ended by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-Pateros).

“The hasty approval of the spending plan of the Duterte administration on second reading without observing the full budget process and the abrupt suspension of House sessions imperiled the enactment of vital measures, particularly the 2021 budget — the single most important piece of legislation that we pass every year,” Velasco said in a statement on Thursday.

He added that it is time to set aside political differences, as the issues hounding the budget are “far bigger” than the tussle for the top post at the House between him and Cayetano.

He also hit Cayetano, accusing him once more of “blackmailing” the executive department and holding the budget hostage for his own political gain.

Velasco’s call echoes those of lawmakers allied with him and lawmakers from the opposition for the House session to resume and for debates on the spending plan to be restarted.

Cayetano, however, balked at these appeals, saying that continuing budget deliberations in plenary would further lead to politicking.

“There are saboteurs, there were people with their own intentions. Lawmakers and the departments were no longer able to talk well with each other,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

In lieu of plenary debates, Cayetano moved to create a small committee composed of several House members which would take up proposed amendments by lawmakers to the budget.

The speakership squabble reached new heights after Cayetano’s allies moved to suspend session until November 16, thus avoiding any possibility of the Velasco camp from putting up a challenge to the speaker’s leadership come October 14 — the supposed end-date of the first half of the term-sharing agreement between the two lawmakers brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019.

With the session suspended until November 16, the House would not be able to pass the budget on third and final reading until then at the earliest, raising concerns from some senators that the passage of the fiscal plan would be delayed.

Lawmakers allied with Velasco said it is still possible for a majority of congressmen to reconvene the session ahead November 16, but Cayetano’s allies said this would be illegal.

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