The House of Representatives and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) are eyeing a smoother process for the preparation and approval of the annual national budget.
According to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, the House and the DBM want to “take a second look” at the traditional way of preparing the proposed budget and presenting it to the two chambers of Congress.
He said the plan is for the executive and legislative branches to work together in putting together the yearly outlay. “That is what we want to do and that is what Budget Secretary (Wendel) Avisado wants to do – even before the President submits the budget to Congress, there is consultation with the proper committees of both the House and the Senate, instead of them preparing it and the House revising it and the Senate doing its own revision,” he said.
He said enacting the appropriations bill would be smoother and faster “if we can do the budget together.”
Under the Constitution, it is the President who submits the annual budget to Congress. The budget bill, by mandate of the Charter, originates from the House. The Senate has the power to concur or propose amendments.
Aside from speeding up the budget enactment process, plan of the House and the DBM would obviate the possibility of the President vetoing or rejecting certain appropriations in the Congress-approved spending bill.
In April last year, President Duterte signed the 2019 appropriations law after deleting P95-billion worth of alleged last-minute pork barrel fund insertions made by the previous House leadership.
Wrangling between the two chambers over such insertions delayed the signing of the budget. The delay resulted in an economic slowdown in the first two quarters before the economy recovered in the latter part of last year. However, the recovery was not enough for the government to meet its growth target.
Before the year just past ended, the House and the Senate approved the 2020 outlay to avoid another delay and to sustain such recovery.
The President signed the appropriations bill last Jan. 6 without vetoing any appropriation.
