Some congressmen have countered allegations on the possibility of a re-enacted budget for 2021 amid concerns on the timely passage of the national budget of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte explained that the proposed budget must still undergo two to three weeks of printing and will still be submitted to the Senate on November 17 even if it passes third reading at the HoR next week.
Villafuerte said the Senate will deliberate on the budget for two weeks which will be followed by a bicameral conference committee discussion on the first week of December.
“They cannot blame the House. Can you imagine sa (in) Bayanihan I, we waited for the Senate also for almost more than 12 hours. ‘Yung (The) Anti-Terror Bill, we adapted it as it is. I think they should respect the House decision at this point,” Villafuerte countered.
Villafuerte said the Senate may consider adopting the Lower House version to expedite its passage, or vice versa.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Alan Cayetano apologized to Senate President Vicente Sotto following their argument regarding the 2021 budget. Cayetano earlier mentioned that the Senate must be blamed in case of budget passage delay.
“‘Yung context is kung magkakaroon ng reenactment, it won’t be on the part of the House because we made sure that one day lang ang pinag-uusapan (The context is that if there will be a reenactment, it won’t be on the part of the House because we made sure that it would only take one day),” Cayetano defended.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman has appealed to Cayetano to withdraw his motion of passing the proposed budget on second reading and to continue the session. He reasoned out that the speakership issue should not interfere with the passage of the national budget.
However, Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales pointed out that an appeal may no longer work while the session is on break.
Meanwhile, the minority bloc insisted on proceeding “with its own parallel deliberations and submit and assert its own proposed amendments and other recommendations.”
“Furthermore, in the interest of transparency and to allow the public to participate in the process, we shall make these proceedings accessible to the media and the public via social media platforms,” it added. – Report from Daniel Manalastas
