by Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA
Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday said the leadership of the House of Representatives has agreed to withdraw its own version of the proposed PHP3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.
Lacson said this development was relayed to him by San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, who was tasked to negotiate with the Senate on the ongoing budget impasse between the two chambers of Congress.
“Yesterday, he (Zamora) gave me a call and he said meron nang approval ang House leadership na ire-recall nila today. And it bears watching if they will really withdraw their version of the enrolled bill today. And then from there, we will move forward,” Lacson told reporters in an ambush interview after the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Senate building in Taguig City.
“If they do not, we don’t have an enrolled bill, and we won’t have any national budget until August, when the leadership of the House changes,” Lacson added.
Lacson earlier disclosed the post-ratification “maneuvering of funds” in the 2019 budget by the House leadership, which he said is a violation of the 1987 Constitution’s Art. VI, Sec. 2, Paragraph 2: “Upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereto shall be allowed.”
Lacson claimed that the House leadership realigned some PHP95.1 billion in the 2019 budget to favored districts.
