The House leadership’s insistence on conducting four separate budget hearings daily has paid off, resulting in the completion of the per-agency deliberations of the proposed P4.1-trillion budget for 2020 in record time.
House Committee on Appropriations chairman Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab credited this achievement to the guidance of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano who earlier promised the timely passage of a pork-free and illegal insertion-free budget.
Ungab said that it was Cayetano’s innovative idea to adjust the plenary schedule to accommodate four budget briefings daily. It can be recalled that plenary sessions were begun at 5 p.m. instead of the usual 3 p.m. during the past few weeks.
He added that it was also the House Speaker’s idea to ask the House appropriations panel vice chairmen and their teams to oversee the hearings after these are formally opened by the chairman.
During the submission of the National Expenditure Program for Fiscal Year 2020 to the House, the Speaker said that they would make adjustments in its plenary schedule to give more time for the scrutiny of the proposed P4.1-trillion proposed national budget.
“Under the effective guidance and leadership of Speaker Cayetano, everyone moved in accordance to his given task, and supported and coordinated with the leadership of the Committee on Appropriations which resulted in the early completion of the budget committee hearings last Friday, Sept. 6. For that, I thank the vice chairmen and members of the Committee on Appropriations for their hard work and sense of responsibility,” Ungab said.
A check of the previous schedules of the House of Representatives showed that the annual budget hearings usually ended on the fourth week of September.
Ungab also thanked his fellow congressmen who responded to their call and helped in the study and review of the budget proposals of the different government departments and agencies to determine the necessity of their programs and projects.
He said the cooperation and attendance of the various heads of government agencies and departments also contributed to the early completion of the budget hearings because the public officials provided the answers to the issues raised by the House members.
There’s pressure on the House to pass the 2020 budget on time, especially after the delayed approval of the P3.757-trillion budget for 2019. The delay forced the government to run on a reenacted budget for the first quarter of the year.
Following the termination of the hearings on the proposed budget of the different government departments, attached agencies, and offices, Ungab said the Appropriations panel is set to approve on Monday, Sept. 9, the Committee Report on House Bill4228, principally authored by him, which seeks to appropriate funds for the operation of the government of the Republic of the Philippines from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020.
The sponsorship and start of floor deliberations on HB 4228 are scheduled on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Ungab said the House is sticking to its original target date to pass the proposed national budget before the Oct. 4 recess.
Earlier, House Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales II said the House was eyeing to start the plenary budget debates on Sept. 19. “The truth is, through the initiative of Speaker Cayetano, we were able to advance the schedule of the plenary debates,” Gonzales, a former House Majority Leader, said. (Ellson A. Quismorio)
