Senate, House on collision course over budget

The Senate and the House of Representatives are on a collision course over the proposed P1.126 trillion 2007 budget.

Some senators have accused congressmen of bloating the budget submitted by Malacañang by P8 billion in pork barrel funds.

But according to Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, House appropriations committee chairman, congressmen just realigned P8 billion in interest payments to infrastructure projects.

"We did not bloat the budget. The ceiling of P1.126 trillion remains the same," he said.

He said congressmen are aware that it is unconstitutional for them to increase the budget proposal submitted by Malacañang.

The word war between the two chambers on the 2007 outlay prompted Representatives Gerry Salapuddin of Basilan and Exequiel Javier of Antique yesterday to propose a bicameral dialogue on the budget.

"We can all work together silently without engaging in noisy throwing of brickbats in public," they said.

They said as far as the House is concerned, it passed a P1.126-trillion budget last Oct. 13, though they admitted that they realigned billions to their pork barrel and other projects.

They said they take offense at the accusation that they "bloated" the Palace-proposed budget.

The claim portrays congressmen "as if they are afflicted with an insatiable greed for money," they added.

Majority Leader Prospero Nograles offered a solution to be Senate-House conflict on the budget — abolish the Senate and replace Congress with a unicameral parliament.

"For starters, P4.8 billion in senators’ pork will be saved annually," he said.

In claiming that the nation could save billions if the Senate were shut down, Nograles failed to consider the offer of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. of 34 seats in the planned parliament for senators.

This is in addition to the proposal of many of his colleagues that the envisioned parliament should have two representatives, instead of one, from each congressional district, and for populous districts to be split into two. That would double parliament’s membership to nearly 500. — Jess Diaz