Drilon: Senate to continue budget hearings

Senators will continue their hearings on next year’s proposed national budget while waiting for the House of Representatives to pass its version of the 2006 General Appropriations Bill.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday the Senate hearings would go on until Congress adjourns for Christmas recess in the second week of December.

The early hearings would allow the Senate to easily scrutinize the House version of the bill upon its transmittal and let the committee on finance draft its report, he added.

Drilon said the proposed national budget was submitted to Congress on Aug. 25, a month after President Arroyo delivered her last State of the Nation Address.

Normally, the budget is submitted by Malacañang simultaneously or a day after the SONA, he added.

Drilon said he was disappointed with Budget Secretary Romulo Neri who failed to submit to the Senate the breakdown of the disbursements for the P728-million fertilizer fund of the Department of Agriculture. "I am disappointed with Mr. Neri," he said. "They cannot get away from the scrutiny of the Senate."

Drilon said the passage of the 2006 General Appropriations Bill was delayed because Malacañang took a long time in submitting its draft proposal to the House of Representatives.

The secretaries of budget and management, agriculture, and agrarian reform will have to present their accounting report on the controversial fertilizer program when they appear again before the Senate next month, he added.

Several senators said they need at least a month and a half to work on the proposed national budget to come out with a report.

The House version should have been transmitted to the Senate as early as Nov. 15 to pave the way for the passage of next year’s national budget by Dec. 31, 2005.

The Senate has been conducting its own hearings on the proposed budgets for the various Cabinet departments and agencies for the past two weeks while the House deliberates on next year’s proposed national budget.

With just a little over a month left before the year ends, and with no report yet on the proposed 2006 budget from the House, senators have expressed concern that there would be a reenactment of the 2005 budget for the first few months of next year.

Under the Constitution, the national budget and other appropriations must originate from the House, but amendments can be made after these bills are sent to the Senate for further study.