Senate mulls urgent caucus over delayed transmittal of budget bill to Duterte
Credit to Author: JAVIER J. ISMAEL| Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:14:23 +0000
THE Senate is considering calling for an urgent caucus amid reports that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other congressmen allegedly “manipulated” the ratified bicameral conference committee
(bicam) report on the 2019 national budget bill.
Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd on Tuesday said he was consulting Senators Loren Legarda and Panfilo Lacson on what should be done if the version of the House of the Representatives (HOR)
would come out different from the copy of the bicameral conference committee (bicam) report that was ratified by the Senate and the House last February 8.
“I will not sign anything that we did not approve. You should know me better than that,” said Sotto.
Lacson said on Monday that Legarda informed him that she has recommended to Sotto to call all senators to an urgent caucus where they can tackle and agree on what actions to take should the
House copy of the ratified budget bill differ from what they have agreed on and ratified.
Legarda, chairman of the Senate finance committee, was confident that her colleagues would agree to meet in a caucus despite their busy schedule because of the forthcoming midterm polls.
Lacson on Friday claimed that the delay in the transmittal of the P3.757 trillion national budget for 2019 to Malacañang was because of individual projects still being submitted by congressmen to the
House leadership even after Congress has ratified the measure.
“If you notice, the budget bill has not been transmitted to Malacañang in spite of the bicam report being ratified by both Houses of Congress more than two weeks ago,” said Lacson in a statement.
“I have it on good information that the House leadership is still waiting for several congressmen to finalize the submission of their individual projects. This is not to mention that insertions and
realignments were made even after the bicameral report ratification,” he added.
Congress has approved the 2019 national budget in early February before it went on its February 9 to May 19 break for the May 13 midterm elections.
The budget bill has yet to be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte as the government continues to operate on a reenacted budget.
The post Senate mulls urgent caucus over delayed transmittal of budget bill to Duterte appeared first on The Manila Times Online.