MANILA — Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said a reenacted budget looms until June this year if the leadership of the House of Representatives sticks with its amendments to the proposed PHP3.757-trillion 2019 national budget after ratification.
Sotto said the 17th Congress can still decide on the budget bill’s fate by May 20 until the first week of June, even as he raised the possibility that the bill could be archived for the next Congress if no agreement is reached by then.
Sotto maintained that he will not sign an enrolled copy of the budget bill for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature if the lower chamber insists on its amendments.
“Pagka nakita namin iba dun sa ni-ratify namin (If we see that it is still different from what we ratified), hindi namin ita-transmit sa (we won’t transmit it to the) President and I will tell the President that this is not what we passed,” he said.
Sotto said the House’s realignments after ratification is a violation of the Constitution, noting that no amendment should be made to a measure already approved on third and final reading.
“Let’s just say na it is a violation of the Constitution if you change anything that you have already ratified,” Sotto said.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said if the House would insist on realigning certain allocations in the budget, he proposed that both chambers reconsider the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the budget and reconvene the bicam when sessions resume in May.
“After the bicam report is ratified by both chambers, hindi na pwedeng palitan ito (this cannot be changed), because that would constitute unauthorized alterations of legislative records. You cannot change, even if you are the Speaker or Senate President, what was approved by the chambers,” Drilon said.
“The Senate President and the House Speaker are not superior to their respective chambers. It is the chambers which approved this and therefore, any revision must be approved by the chambers,” he added.
The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since January this year after Congress failed to pass the 2019 General Appropriations Act before 2018 ended.
