Deadlock ends as Senate-House panel approves P3.8-T nat’l budget for 2019
Credit to Author: kadraneda| Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2019 08:16:27 +0000
MANILA, Philippines — The budget impasse is now over after the Senate-House conference committee signed and approved on Friday the final version of the P3.8-trillion 2019 national budget.
Members of the congressional bicameral conference committee met at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City and green-lighted the 2019 expenditure plan despite earlier objections from Senator Panfilo Lacson over alleged pork barrel insertions in the budget.
READ: Lawmakers keep P75-B pork in final spending bill | Reenacted budget looms over pork
This year’s spending bill only needs ratification by both chambers of Congress before it could be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his consideration. Congress only has until this Friday, February 8, to ratify the bicam-approved financial plan, since it would go on an election break.
The updated amendments in the National Expenditure Plan have yet to be given to the media, as of this posting.
House appropriations panel chair Rolando Andaya Jr.’s motion to abandon the cash-based budgeting system this year has also been carried by the two contingents as it faced no objections. This means that this year’s financial plan goes back to the obligation-based system wherein funds could be used within a two-year period.
INQUIRER.net/Pathricia Ann V. RoxasThe approval of the budget had been delayed amid allegations of inserted pork barrel cloaked as amendments in the expenditure plan. Lacson earlier said each House member is bound to get P160 million from the budget, while his colleagues also made insertions, including the P23-billion infrastructure programs.
“Basically, yes, the P160 million per House member plus the billion-peso insertions made by a number of their colleagues, and the P23-billion Department of Public Works and Highways insertions by a number of senators plus other insertions in different agencies have all been retained,” Lacson said in an earlier Inquirer report. /kga
RELATED STORIES:
Lacson: No 2019 budget unless Senate, House agree on ‘pizza pie’