By Azer Parrocha/PNA
MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed a resolution extending the validity of the 2018 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to Dec. 31, 2019, a top Palace official said on Thursday.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed to reporters that the President signed the resolution last Dec. 28, 2018.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed last December 28, 2018 Joint Resolution No. 3 extending the validity of the MOEE (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses) and CO (Capital Outlays) components of the 2018 GAA (Budget),” Medialdea said in a message to reporters.
At present, the government has started operating under a reenacted budget on January 1 this year until the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is passed.
The Congress failed to pass the budget bill before the end of 2018 following allegations of “pork” insertions in the 2019 budget.
However, Congress has vowed to hasten the passage of the budget bill when sessions resume on January 14.
For 2018, the government operated on a PHP3.767 trillion national budget. This year, it is proposing a PHP3.757 trillion budget.
Earlier, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno warned that under a reenacted budget, no new infrastructure projects can start because the capital outlays component of the previous year’s budget cannot be deemed reenacted.
Diokno said new projects will have to wait until the 2019 General Appropriations Act is passed into law since the same projects cannot be funded and finished twice.
He warned that the momentum of the administration’s infrastructure projects is at risk of slowing down.
He also described operating under a reenacted budget as “detrimental to the economic growth and development objectives of the Duterte administration.”
