Budget ‘as good as rebuilt’ due to pressure from Cayetano for an early recess: senators

MANILA, Philippines – The decision by President Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies in the House of Representatives to take an early break guarantees a renewed national budget by 2021, a blow to the government’s fiscal capacity to counter the staggering economic impact of the COVID. -19 pandemic, Senate leaders said Wednesday.

Senate Speaker Vicente Sotto III and Senator Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday’s abrupt suspension of the House session took a month off the Senate calendar from deliberating on the proposed $ 4.5 trillion spending program, that the chamber began discussing last month.

Sotto said he was “disappointed” and informed Cayetano of the implications of the House leadership’s decision when the president phoned him Tuesday night.

“I said, ‘This will be precarious. If he [House version] will be delayed, we will not be able to pass the [national budget] on time, ‘”he said.

“My disappointment is [due to] the lack of material time that we have been given [to deliberate on the budget measure]”Sotto told reporters at a Zoom conference.

Lack of time

The government’s efforts to address the growing demand for better communications infrastructure and various public health concerns would be seriously affected if Congress does not adopt a new spending program, he said.

“We will be hampered in our work… A delay in the approval of the budget would delay the delivery of public services and government projects. It would mean missed opportunities, especially for unemployed Filipinos, ”Sotto said.

“I just hope that all legislators, including us [in the Senate], realize that many Filipinos lost their jobs [because of the pandemic]. That is why we are blamed for never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity, “she added.

In an online interview, Lacson, who had been reviewing the government’s annual spending schedule, said “no amount of magic” would help the Senate finish its own budget measure review process before the congressional holiday recess. on December 19.

He reiterated that the House should have presented its own version of the budget, called the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), before the October 17 hiatus to give the Senate enough time to examine budget lines when it resumes session a month later. .

Presentation by parts

Lacson said that Cayetano’s suggestion of a piecemeal presentation of the amended parts of the spending bill to the Senate before November 5 would not work as these documents would not be considered the final, printed GAB.

“If the last day of presentation of the amendments [of the House] it’s november 5, [the national] the budget is practically rebuilt, ”Lacson said.

“There is no way the Senate will finish the budget [deliberations] and even Malacañang to approve the budget before the end of the year, “he said. “I don’t see any possibility that we have a new budget [for next year]. “

When told that the president and his allies had assured the public that the spending bill would pass on schedule, Lacson said, “That’s really impossible.”

“Even if they promise that it will be approved on time, we cannot do it due to the tight schedule,” he stressed.

Sotto also mocked those who would try to pass the blame to the Senate should the budget be replaced, saying they “don’t understand” the budget process in Congress.

Malacañang reiterated that President Rodrigo Duterte did not want a reworked budget.

Coronavirus spending

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a television interview Wednesday that the 2021 budget was “probably the most important” that Duterte had proposed to Congress, as it contained new spending for the coronavirus response.

The Palace, however, will remain on the sidelines of the dispute for leadership in the House, said Roque.

Cayetano and Marinduque representative Lord Allan Velasco have a shared term agreement negotiated by Duterte in July of last year. Under that agreement, Cayetano would serve as president during the first 15 months of the 18th Congress and Velasco would assume the position during the last 21 months of the mandate.

Cayetano is supposed to resign on October 14 and hand over the leadership to Velasco, but he has refused in what the opposition in the House has called an attempt by him and his allies to control resources in the 2021 budget in preparation for the general elections. in 2022.

Duterte met with Cayetano and Velasco last week and told them that he hoped they would honor their shared term agreement. In a separate meeting this week, the president told Velasco that he had the right to seek the presidency under his shared term agreement with Cayetano.

But Cayetano and his majority allies had found a way to circumvent the agreement. Last week, Cayetano interrupted budget deliberations and, in a speech on the floor, offered to resign. His allies put his offer to a vote and rejected it 184-1.

However, after the removal of a Velasco ally as vice president last Friday, the Marinduque representative camp announced that the figures had begun to change in favor of the presumed new Speaker.

But to prevent Velasco from calling a speaking vote on October 14, Cayetano shortened the budget process on Tuesday, got the spending plan approved by voice vote on second reading, and suspended the session until November 16, without having into account the legislative calendar, which showed the pause should be October 17.

According to the rules

Velasco said that Cayetano “bastardized” the House rules by forcing the budget and prematurely suspending the session, thus “sealing his own fate.”

On Wednesday, Vice President Neptali Gonzales II defended Cayetano’s measures, saying they were “in accordance with the rules of the House.”

Gonzales argued that under Section 55 of the House rules, as long as three members have spoken in favor of the budget measure and three have spoken against, and in the last 15 days before the postponement, two have spoken to his favor and one has spoken against him, or one has spoken in his favor and no one has spoken against, then “any member may proceed to terminate the interpellation period to move on to the amendment period.”

“I have been a Majority Leader for nine years and have been [on] the rules committee of six congresses. I can say that Section 55 [is] a familiar remedy used in several past Congresses in various GAB deliberations to end the debate period and speed up its approval, ”said Gonzales.

He refuted the assertion of the representative of Albay Edcel Lagman that the suspension of the session until November 16, a period of 40 days, violated Section 16 of the Constitution, saying that it was simply a provision of the board of directors, without “binding force and it does not imply any invalidating consequence for their indifference. “

House prerogative

On Lagman’s assertion that Cayetano’s motions violated a concurrent resolution authorizing the suspension of the October 17-November 15 session, Gonzales said the president’s measure was “the prerogative of the House.”

“The Plenary cannot be guilty of violating its own rules. When the plenary decides something, it automatically becomes the rule. If it goes against an existing rule, the latter is considered modified, ”he said.

He said there was no way the House would have passed the budget in the third and final reading before the Oct. 17 recess without an emergency certification from the Office of the President.

Even with a certification that would allow the House to pass the budget on third reading, he said, there was also no way the House could have transmitted the GAB to the Senate because it needed to be printed first, which would have taken two to three. weeks.

Gonzales warned Velasco supporters not to hold their own session, as it would be “illegal.” He urged them to respect the rules.

“Let’s follow the rules to remove the Speaker and elect a Speaker, and that can only be done in plenary. We are ready to face them in a parliamentary war that will evict President Cayetano, ”Gonzales said.

—With reports from Leila B. Salaverria and DJ Yap

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