DETERMINED to have Congress approve the 2020 national budget early enough so it can be used on the very first day of January next year, Malacañang sent its budget proposal to Congress very early this year – in August.
The House of Representatives immediately referred it to its Committee on Appropriations. After two weeks of plenary debates, the House last September 20 voted 257-6 to approve the P4.1-trilion 2020 Appropriation Bill.
It will now go to the Senate and the senators will have a great deal of time to examine the proposed provisions of the bill approved by the House. They will see if, despite all the precautions, some “pork barrel” projects of some congressmen have indeed managed to slip through.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has exposed many “pork barrel” attempts over the years, has once again claimed that the budget approved by the House contains P100 million for each legislative district. Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the House only has an additional P1.6 billion for the appointment of 22 deputy speakers, for research, office facilities, new committees, and additional personnel.
If, as Senator Lacson claims, the budget contains so many millions for each congressman’s district, the Senate may well resort to its maneuver last year. Senate President Vicente Sotto III, we may recall, just sent the bill with all its disputed provisions to President Duterte with a note about the Senate’s reservations. And the President simply vetoed the disputed sums – some P75 billion in alleged pork barrel for congressmen. With this prospect, we do not expect last year’s late-budget fiasco to be repeated this year.
As the Senate examines the Malacañang-sponsored budget as approved by the House, we urge our senators to focus on key programs that urgently need funding, particularly the long delayed increases in the salaries of teachers and other government workers. The chamber should concentrate on helping ensure that it will meet the most urgent needs of the nation in this coming year 2020.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the nation’s economic growth slowed down to only 5.5 percent in the first half of 2019 because of the late enactment of the 2019 budget bill. But with the catch-up spending program, he added, the full-year goal of 6 percent is still possible by the end of 2019.
The country must be able to achieve growth of 6 percent or higher for 2020, the secretary said, and early approval of the 2020 budget, with its 25 Duterte priority bills, will help the government achieve this growth target.
