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impassei House recalls version the economy to shrink by o.5

By L€lla B. Salaverria House leadership was standing
and Dl Yap by its original position to itemize percent If the country operates
6rTeam-lnquirer lump sums in the spending bil. on a reenacted budget one for
' "We are notwithdravrring or
'
2019, the GDP growth is project-
Malacaiang should intervene' backtracking from our earlier ed to be 4percent, he added.
anew to break the budget im- position. We maintain that the Because of the delay, he
passe and ask the House of Rep- House did nothing unconstitu- said, job order workers have
resentatives to revert to the orig- tional, illegal or irregular when been unable to get their
inal version cif the P3.8-tdllion we approved and ratified the salaries. About 30 percent of
zorg spending bill approved by 2019 GAB in plenary sessioq" government workers are job
the conference committee, Sen- Andaya said. order employees, he noted.
ate Majority Leader Juan Miguel The House and the Senate
zubiri said on wednesday. MiguelZubiri Budget held hostage separately ratified the budget
Zubiri appealed to the Palace President Duterte earlier measure on Feb. 8, but the bill
to call another meeting with the met with Senate and House has. not been transmitted to
leaders of the senate and the changes made by the l{ouse. leaders to discuss their differ- Malacanang due to differences
House for ihe sake of the econo-
r'We have to have a guaran- ences over the measure, but he over last-minute changes rnade
my, whic\ he said, was in dan- tee because if you dont veto faied t)&oker an agreement. by the House after ratification.
ger of shrinking and the job or-
those provisions, somebody The Palace has to be in- Lacson and SeIL Loren
der workers in the government coultl question [them]. And I volved in the issue, Zubiri said. Legard4 chair of the finance
who have not received tleir know Sen. lPanfilo] Lacson will "This is the President's bud- cornmittee, said senators from
wages since January because of questirin this in the supr€me get. His budget is [being] held boti the majority and the minor-
the absence of a new budgel Court," he said. hostage," he said. ity were "solidly" behind sotto.
"I will appeal to
Mala- Andaya said Arroyo issued "We all stand by- Senate
canang to exertpressure on my Not back&acking the instructions to retdeve the IPresidentl Tito Sotto [on] the
colleagues in the House ofRep- while maintaining the House budgetbooks from the Senate. budget From the start Un-
resentatives to just return to was not backhacking on its posi- The House negotiating equivocally," Legarda said on
the version approved by the tion, Speaker Gloria Macapagal- team is composed of Andaya, her Twitter accounl
Senate and the House last Arroyo on wednesday ordered San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora She was seconded by Sen.
montt!" he told reporters. the withdnwdl of its version of and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. Joelvillanueva.
This is one scenario, he said, the budget bill in a "last-ditch ef- It was Lacson who first ex- Lacson also dlsputed the
to ensure the passage of the fort'' to break the impasse. posed the changes to the bud- cldim of House Minority Lead-
2019 budget.. Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., .get made by the House, which er Danilo Suarez that a "silent
Another possible compro- chair of the appropriations explained that it only itemized majodty'' actually disagreed
mise he sees is for the Senate to commiftee, said a three-mem- lump sum amounts, with Sotto.
approve the "irregular" version ber team had also been fortred Senate President Vicente "Has Suarez, the House com-
made by the House after the to meet with the senators for a Sottg III has refused to sign the pany union' minority leader, be-
ratification of the conference discussion of contentious is- budget bill that deviated from' come so despemte for his share
report, hut only with the Presi- sues in the General Appropria- the ratified conference report. of the pork allocation that he
dent's guarantee that he would tions Bill (cAB). .zubiri said the delay in the now resorts to lying iust to get
the postratification But he emphasized that the budgei's approval would cause his bounty," Lacson said. lNQ
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