m Tuesday, September 3, 2019 vol. 14 No.

32B

Budptbilwith
Bv |ovEr Mnnrn N. Drln Cnuz
HE chairman of the House
I Committee on Appropriatiolrs
I on Mondayhas protested thb
withdrawal of House Bill 4ZZBor the
General Appropriations Bill (GAB) tor
FY !02Ai, with a warning to peers this
could "derail" thg budgJt bill despite
earlier assurances by House lead6rs,:they
| @joveemari,d
of the still-bitter'in,fighting
among those who fought for
the speakership.
The bill on the P4.l-trillion
budget was scheduled for first
reading last August 28, but was
pulled out just before this.
for Finance Luis n"y-""i Villa-
'fuerte, Davao
City Rep. and ap-
propriations panel chief Isidro
Ungab said withdrawal of the
GAB witl derail the approval of
the 2020 national budget.
"Your proposal to withdraw
.al- a
enormous time, efforts and re*
sources that will surely affect
or delay the passage of the 202A
budget," Ungab said.
According to Ungab, any al-
teration of the National Exqen-
diture Program r:r NEp, which is
the version of the revised. General
Appropriations Bill, will surely
raise doubts on the proceedings;
and the House willbe questio'ned
about'*hy it will alter the pro-
posed budget prepared by the
Eiecutive Department.

SEE "BUDGET," A.2

and amend the Generai Apprb.

can',still meet their targgts for sending,it
Senate.
to the
As fears;of another budget de-
lay stoked:fuad rriemories of how
the fo'urrnonth delayin the 2019
budge! had caused the weaker-
than'exp'6'ctEd e conomic growth
IT
priations Bill for FY 2020 will
- definitely derail the schedule
' and approval of the budget. The
. staff are now'all busy preparing P4.
for the plenary and pre-plenary
i,n the first.quarter, other law, deliberations, gathering data and
makers warned that the sudden reports requested by members of
withdrawal of HB 4228 may The national bdget for 2020,
the House:related to the budget.
be'a prelude to a "pork inser- To prepare anbther set of GenJral
as endorsed bythe Executive
tion" exercise, or an indication Appropriatiotns Bill will require branch to Congress ,

r\ .llfuut)€ NFcnsl$J NFxf )or\gs PCN -. , .*>

 For his part, House Commit-
Budget.. . tee on Appropriations Senior Vice
Corqtrwuro rnou Ar Chairman Joey Salceda said bud-
get briefings in the lower cham-
Ungab said it is established ber will go on but "the significant
procedure to prepare the GAB im- implication is we can't go to the
mediately after submission by the floor without the GAB referred
Executive department, noting that to committee, approved by com-
the printing of the bill at the APO mittee, andpassed through House
Production Unit of the National Committee on Rules."
Economic and Development Au- Based on the schedule of activi-
thority (Neda) is almost finished. ties, the appropriations commit-
"The established procedure and tee will deliberate the 2020 NEP
practice of the Committee on Ap- starting August 22 to September 9,'
propriations in the House of Rep- while the approval of the commit-
resentatives is to prepare the Gen- tee reportwillbe on September 11.
eral Appropriations Bill or GAB The proposed 2020 General Ap-
immediately after submission by propriations Act is expected to be
the Executive department of the approved on third and final read-
National Expenditure Program or ingon October4. Then, the House
NEP. The GAB which is prepared will transmit it to the Senate for
by the Committee Secretariat is a its own deliberations on October 8.
faithfulcopyof the NEP," saidVIL- The Congress is eyeing to sub-
LAFUERTE, adding "The printing mit the 2020 national budgef to
of the Gener4lAppropriations Bill President Duterte on Decemb er20.
is almost finished at the APO-
Neda, the copies of which can be "Porkfree"
immediately distributed to the FOR his part, Villafuerte said the
members of the House of Repre- House remains fullycommitted to
sentatives once delivered." the timely and transparent pas-
Ungab said the last day of the sage of the 2020 GAB.
briefings_of Jhe proposed 2020 However, Villafuerte said the
budget is on September 6,, and House leadership is targeting the
the preparation of the Committee chamber's action on the 2'020 GAB'
Report will be on September 10. by end-October without "short-
"Plenary deliberations [are] also circuiting" the normal legislative
scheduled to start on September process for this bill's committee
1.2, 20!9, until October 4, 2019, and plenary approval as enshrined
which is the planned approval of in the 1987 Constitution. ":
the GAB on third and final read- "This legislative process must
ing. We prepared this schedule not be done with undue haste'or
of activities in order to approve making a mockery of the House's
the 2020 budget on time before constitutional power of the purse."
our break on October 5, 2019," Ungab filed GAB 2020 as House
he added. BilI 4228 on first reading last
August 28. Villafuerte ordered
the withdrawal of HB 4228 that
same night, supposedly upon the
Speaker's order.
Villafuerte said he moved for
HB 4228'swithdrawal in the belief
that it was a "premature" filing of
the budget bill on first'reading,
considering that all departments
and other agencies of the go-vern-
ment have yet to finish presenting
their respective budget proposals
at that time.
"The bill's withdrawalwas not an
issue; it was just a procedural mat-
ter as the presentation of the budget
proposals of all government offices
before the House appropriations
committee have yet to be completed
at the time of HB 4228's filing on
first reading," he added. .
"In fact, the remaining offices
that have yet to present their 2020
budggt proposals are expected to
finish doing so by the end of this
workryeek yet-so how can the
House appropriations commit-
tee submit HB 4228 without hav-
ing heard the presentations of all
government agencies covered by'
the proposed 2020 GAA lGeneral
Appropriations Aqt]?" he asked.
He said that after the Executive
Depar.tment's submission of the
NEP to the Congress, it is up to the
FIouse of Representatives-given
its power of the purse as vested in
it by the 1987 Constitution-is
supposed to craft the GAB based
on, among others, the respective
budgetary proposals of all govern-
ment agencies.
"There is no approved GAB yet,
so there is no such thing as con-,
gressional lnsertipns at this stage,"
\ +tffiot tdg- rVer,resr
\<)
he said. "Congressional inser-
tions are budgetary amendments
that certain lawmakers insert on
the sly after a consolidated GAB
has already been passed by both
chamber post-ratification
process that the Supreme Court
had struck down and which cer-
tain House leaders resorted to in
the 17th Congress and that led to
' the delay in the approval of the
2019 budget."
Villafuerte said the 2020 GAB
could be refiled within the week
after the budget pi'esentation of
government agencies. .
Also, Villafuerte said several
lawmakers were "dissatisfled"
with several items in tbe 2020
national budget.
He addedlawmakers are ques-
tioning the inequitable distri-
bution of allocations for their
districts. r:
Preludefor pork?
HOUSE Deputy Minority leader
'and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isa-
gani Zarate said the withdrawal
of the GABwhile deliberationsare
still ongoing rnay be a prelude for
pork barrel insertions.
"This development is quite
alarming, even disturbing. It srnells
like the greasy patronage pork is
being put into the oven. In light of
this we are calling for a suspension
of the budget deliberations until the
2O2O GAB, as originally based from
the NEP submitted by Malacafl ang,
is refiled," he said.
"We also need to scrutinize the
GAB that will be refiled to see if
indeed more pork, amorphous
,,
lump-sum funds or intelligence
and confidential' i.rrrd, fr"rr" i\
added to the budge t," addedZaratd.
Speakership fight?
BAYAN Muna Rep. Ferdinand
Gaite on Monday said the cur-
rent brouhaha on the 2020 GAB
may be a'result of the last speak-
ership fight.
'As can be seen, Rep. L RayVil-
lafuerte is associated with Speaker
Alan Feter Cayetano, while House
Appropriations Committee Chair-
man R ep. Isidro Ungab is associated
with Rep. Paolo Duterte and Mayor
Sara Duterte-Carpio and this in-
trarhurals on the 2020 budget is a
manifestation of the fight between
their principals," said Gaite.
Earlier, Paolo Duterte backed
out from the race and supported
the speakershipbid of Ungab frdm
the Hugpong ng Pagbabago paity
founded by his sister Sara. Howr
ever, President Duterte endorsed
the speakership of Cayetano'.
"The more than 20 deputy
i:s also a manifestation of
speakers
this fight and createdanother layer
of bureaucracy in Congress, as well
as a means to look into the work of
the chairmen of the committees.
It is like having a shadow govern-
ment in Congress," he added.
Gaite said different conflicting
ruling factions in Congress "now
have their own priorities and pet
initiatives, so thB issue of allotting
orinsertingporkis always an issue
in the national budget."
"We hope that the budget im-
passe would be settled with the
Filipino people's interest that is
upheld'and not the pork of a few
politicians," said Gaite.
,l