Nlalagn
Business Insight
Wednesday, February 6, 2OL9
Bicam approval of budget
compfomlse seen
BY WENDELL VIGILIA
and RAYMOND AFRICA
THE heads of the Senate and
House bicam panels on the 2019
budget will meet today to Etdtze a
"brcaLthtough" comptomise ver-
sion of the national budget, which
bot-h chambers of Congress expect
to be tztified on Ftiday.
BICAM
:nd the individuai amendments
made bv a numbet of senators
amouoting to P23 billion
He said *re House "insertions"
include P70 million fot "hard"
proiects such as roads znd frood
control projects. and P30 m Lron
for "soft" projects such as text
book-s and scholarshiPs. Anorher
P60 million was added bY SPeaker
Gloria Arroyo, including P50 mil-
lion for "hard" projects ar.rd P10
miiLion for "soft" Ptojects, while
some of the more foltunate House
memben teceived much mote.
Lggatda, Senate Enance com-
mittee chair, said the Senate 2nd
House techoical staff rvill meet
today to finalize the bicam tePott.
Irgarda said shewas able to come
up rvi--*r :n agreement with A:rdal a
duri-rq fieE meeting Nlooday
"It-w_as l more congerual and
I think there
open bicam, and
was a btiakthrough in a seose
and bodr technical staf! LBfu\fO
fi-egisladve Budget Research and
Xlooitonng Of6ce; and the HoLrse
couflierp"it. are working on lhe
refinement and details now," Le-
sarda said.
" T."cson said Senate President
This as Sen. Pan6lo hcson called
on President Duterte to exercise his
veto powers on the pork barrei funds
in fie P3.757 trillion 2019 budget.
"Mr Presideng you have displayed
1'our strong po)itical will on several
occasions. This time, use your line-
item veto power over the 2019 ap-
propriatioos measute by removing
all the 'potk' inserted by lav,rnak-
Vicente Sotto I[ *'i].1 call aIl a.ll sena-
tors' caucus today before the session
to discuss the budget amendmens
after he followed uP on his urran-
sweted questions to l-egarda
He said the seflatols must go
majot amendmenls
rhtoueh d1e
tpott by Legarda rnd her
"gr..i
c;unterpar!, Camarines Sur ReP.
RoLaodo Andava, |r', House aP-
propri: nons committee chair'
_'It cant be busrness as usual ol
simpll rouurrg ro the bicam mem-
bers all r'hat &e sm:ll grouP brcam
composed oi borh charrs hate
apreed as amendments uilhout us,
a; Least. eoins dtouqh rhe major
amendrnents, esPecralh Lhe l'l ou
millidn per congressmen' P23
bijlion for some lenarors:ld, of
course, tlre imPorrrnt tmendments
that we htoduced." Lacson said.
Andava disrnissed Sotto's waro-
il1q that the gorernment might ruo
oo- a ,e.na.ted 20i8 budget until
July if coogressman and
senators
$dl oot aglee to a comProfluse'
"AlI talks of a reenacted budget
are basetess. The 201 9 rLatiooal bud-
eet will be ready for tie President's
iienante next week " he said
"Aodaya said the House of ReP
resefltatives is sticking to the target
of approving the bicametal confet-
\ p4-cNr PAg€ "
ets rvho ate incorrigibly insatiable
and simply 'beyond redemption,"'
Lacson said in a post in his Tsritter
accouot.
The "pork" Lacson was tefer.
dng to includes the Pl60 million al-
lotted to each of the 297 members
of the House of Reptesentatir.es
See BICAM l Pa.se Bl
ence report on the budget today at
dre resumption of the bicamera.L
meeting io lvlakati Ciqr
'-\r rhis point, we ate still on
rareer. -\s r-. e pass the 2019 budget
r,\is eeL uhough. rll this tajk of
t
pork is useiess unless rve see the
whoLe picture.'- he said.
Andaya sad Budqet SectetarY
Benjan-Lin Diokno_h:-'. .ecret pork '
ot morethan PJ, U brhon.\lhlcn ne
ca11 use to swaY the ourcome of the
2019 m.id-term eLecdons
He said documents in his Pos-
sessiofl shorved Pi-'-J billion in
savings generateci n l01l alone.
"This amounr rvas at tle fu]l dis-
posalof Sec Drokno \Xt also knorv
tl-rat th. amount tbr 2018 savings is
hJgher. \fore rhan enough to swal'
the ourcome of lhe 2019 eLectioos, tl
he s'a..rrs to," he said in a statement.
,\odava has beeo demanding
thar Diokno furnish conglessmen
a reDort on what he claimed as
"DB'NI secret po.k" or billjons of
unreleased appropriatioos in 2018
"because rve need a clear Picture
"
of oLu spending authorig
Since Congress has alreadv
aur,horized chi extension of the
2018 appropriations, -\ndaya said
Iarvmakers "are demandhg to see
the hzlances."