MANILA — The House of Representatives’ appropriations committee will resume the budget briefings once Congress reconvenes on August 28.
House budget deliberations have been temporarily suspended amid concerns of congressmen regarding the proposed cash-based budget system for the 2019 national budget.
According to the schedule released by the House Press and Public Affairs Bureau, the appropriations committee will start its deliberation on the budgets of the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Education on August 28.
Scheduled for August 29 are the budgets of the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Defense.
The Department of Labor and Employment and Department of Foreign Affairs will be defending their budgets on August 30.
The budget briefings for the Department of Information and Communications Technology and Department of Health are set on Sept. 3; Civil Service Commission, Commission on Human Rights, Department of Science and Technology, and the judiciary on Sept. 4; Presidential Communications Operations Office and the Department of Transportation on September 5.
House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. earlier announced the plan to resume budget briefings at the lower chamber following a meeting between the House leadership and President Rodrigo Duterte.
Andaya said President Duterte has opened “clear lines of communication” with the legislative branch over the budget deadlock.
“The President has opened the lines of communication and a possible agreement on how the budget for 2019 will be executed and how it will come out in the House of Representatives,” he said.
Andaya explained that the 2019 national budget is a “hybrid” of cash-based and obligation-based budgeting system.
In an annual cash-based budget, contracts intended to be implemented for the fiscal year should be fully delivered by the end of the year while the multi-year obligation-based budgeting system allows the government to enter into a contract or “obligate funds” without requiring the actual delivery of goods and services within the year. (Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA)
