Duterte set to sign national budget
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2019 11:32:05 +0000
PRESIDENT Duterte
The 2019 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is officially enrolled for President Duterte’s signature.
This, after Senate President Vicente Sotto III signed yesterday the printed copy of the R3.757-trillion proposed budget for this year despite allegations about the supposed post-ratification realignments done by the House of Representatives.
“I already signed the budget, the enrolled copy is now going to be na enrolled bill presented to President. But I placed my reservations on the signature,” the Senate chief announced in a press briefing.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Senator Panfilo Lacson were with him as he made the announcement.
Sotto said he has sent the enrolled budget bill to President Duterte the same afternoon, along with a letter expressing his reservations in signing the GAB.
In his annotation, Sotto told Duterte that he affixed his signature on the budget bill “with strong reservations” as he said his approval only covers “those items approved by the Bicameral Conference Committee and ratified by both Houses of Congress.”
He pointed out the supposed internal realignments made by the Lower Chamber to the government spending bill after its ratification, specifically, the reallocation of the R75-billion of fund from the budget of the DPWH.
“It is my view that it is unconstitutional that R75 billion worth of programs/projects under the Local Infrastructure Program of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was funded through internal realignment, after the Bicameral Conference Committee Report was ratified,” Sotto said in his letter.
The realigned funds, according to Sotto, were sourced from the DPWH’s asset, bridge, and network development programs, as well as from flood management, and convergence and support programs.
In transmitting the enrolled bill, the Senate leader also attached a 157-page list containing R95 billion worth of programs or projects, including the R75 billion cut from the DPWH, funded from the House’s realignments.
“The President may wish to consider disapproving these unconstitutional realignment, pursuant to his consitutional power to veto particular items in the General Appropiratios Bill,” Sotto urged Duterte. (Vanne Terrazola)