House leader warns against budget stalemate

A Senate-House stalemate on the proposed P1-trillion 2006 budget could result from President Arroyo’s decision banning Cabinet members and other officials from attending Senate budget hearings, House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said yesterday.

He said senators could sit on the budget in protest over the ban or reduce the outlay from P1 trillion to just P1 as they did with some controversial agencies.

He said in both cases, a deadlock is inevitable.

"What this means is that the government will continue to operate on the basis of the reenacted 2005 budget," he added.

Asked if the President was justified in prohibiting Cabinet members and other executive officials from appearing not only in Senate investigations but even in budget hearings, Nograles said, "It’s an executive prerogative exercised probably because the Senate has terrorized some officials and they run the risk of heart attacks."

The Senate, which has started budget hearings even while the money measure is still pending in the House, has deferred its scrutiny of the measure after Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus failed to appear before it and defend the budgets of their respective agencies.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita later revealed that the President has prohibited executive officials from appearing not only in Senate inquiries but also in budget hearings and in the confirmation hearings of the Commission on Appointments.

Malacañang officials have said senators have been asking questions not related to the agencies’ budget proposals, such as those about the so-called P2.8-billion fertilizer and farm inputs fund scam.

Cabinet members were banned from Senate budget scrutiny after they had appeared before hearings of the House appropriations committee. These officials included Ermita and Bunye.

When Bunye defended his budget before the committee, Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez grilled him about the "Hello, Garci" tape recording scandal. It was Bunye who, on June 6, 2005, presented to the media two compact disc versions of the tapes containing alleged conversations about vote rigging between Mrs. Arroyo and former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Bunye felt that Golez’s questions were not relevant to his agency’s budget. The intense grilling prompted the press secretary to walk out on the committee, but he later returned after being threatened with a contempt citation. After the hearing, he shook hands with his interrogator.

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., appropriations committee chairman, upheld Golez’s right to ask questions about the tape recording controversy and Bunye’s presentation of the CD versions of the tapes.

"This is part of our oversight function. Theoretically, we can ask questions about anything under the sun," he said.

The reenacted 2005 budget is about P100 billion lower than the P1-trillion spending authority that Mrs. Arroyo is seeking for this year, which includes a deficit of P125 billion.

A Senate-House deadlock on the 2006 budget would mean that the government would be borrowing a lot less to finance a much lower deficit.