Senate starts own hearings on 2006 budget

Senators have taken the initiative to start hearings on the proposed P1.053-trillion 2006 national budget while awaiting the House of Representatives to transmit its version of the measure to the Senate.

Sen. Ralph Recto said the Senate committee on finance headed by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. has decided to hold parallel hearings on the budget while waiting for the House referral.

Recto underscored the importance of passing the national budget for next year considering Congress has less than 80 days left in the fiscal year to approve the budget bill.

He urged the House to "expedite the passage of the budget so it can (be) referred to the Senate, which has vowed to act on it swiftly."

"The clock is ticking. I hope that the House, Senate and Malacañang can pull this through in inspired cooperation for the sake of our employees and our children," he added.

The speedy passage of the budget bill is not entirely dependent on the House, Recto pointed out, but also on the cooperation of the Executive branch.

Recto echoed the concern of lawmakers over Executive Order 464 which prohibits Cabinet members and high-ranking police and military officials from appearing before Congress without permission from President Arroyo.

"They (Malacañang) will make life easier for all of us if they will come to the House and Senate hearings well prepared and reply immediately to our queries. Budget deliberations are delayed and derailed by clueless agency heads who only know the bottom line of their budget but not the details of it," Recto said.

Malacañang has indicated it would cooperate with Congress over budget deliberations by allowing the department heads to attend the hearings.

Senate President Franklin Drilon also reiterated his commitment to pass the proposed 2006 national budget at the soonest possible time even though the Senate’s row with Malacañang has yet to be resolved.

Drilon said the Senate would act promptly on the 2006 budget "provided that the revenue collection projections in the measure are deemed reasonable."

He pointed out that under the proposed P1-trillion 2006 budget, Malacañang projected an increase in additional revenue collection by 24 percent, compared to the previous year.

Based on this, Drilon said that new expenditure projections have increased by 14 percent.

Drilon said that the early passage of the 2006 budget would also depend on how early the House can forward the measure to the Senate.

He said the House traditionally transmits the budget to the Senate by mid-November.

The Senate remains open to resolve its current row with Malacañang, Drilon said, even after the senators had decided to question before the Supreme Court the constitutionality of EO 464.

Drilon led 16 senators last Tuesday in filing a petition before the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the controversial executive order.

He said the filing of the petition seeking to nullify EO 464 was done "without prejudice to efforts to initiate a constructive dialogue between the Senate and Malacañang."

Villar, for his part, said he is looking forward to starting the budget hearings in the Senate this week.

"We have to decide on the budget immediately. I might do this at the same time as the anti-terrorism bill because the budget is an important measure," he said.

Villar said the Senate must decide on how to deal with the national budget proposal since other senators wanted to debate over the budget bill as a committee of the whole.

Villar claimed he has no problem with the proposal but expressed concern that the move might cause undue delay in the passage of the budget.

If the budget hearings are conducted through a committee of the whole, Villar explained the process would take longer since every member of the Senate would want to ask questions to the officials justifying the budget allocations.