Nograles optimistic impasse over 2009 budget to be resolved soon

Speaker Prospero Nograles does not see the P20 billion worth of insertions that senators put in holding up the passage of the proposed P1.415-trillion national budget for 2009 and resulting in a re-enacted budget, saying he is hopeful that the impasse will be ironed out in the bicameral conference committee level.

“The House (of Representatives) will not cause a stalemate with the Senate on the budget approval. To have a re-enacted budget next year will be catastrophic. We are all aware that we need this budget more than ever as we expect tougher times next year,” he said.

Senators and congressmen, led by Senate finance committee chairman Edgardo Angara and House appropriations committee chairman Junie Cua, “can still untangle the deadlock,” Nograles said. “The budget is our best defense against the global economic crisis.”

“I always believe that we have a solution. There’s nothing that we cannot solve if everyone is willing to listen and everyone is prepared to compromise for the sake of national interest,” the Speaker said in a statement.

“Our national welfare should be the overriding concern for ensuring that we will not have a re-enacted budget next year, and not our individual political interests,” he said.

Senators had reduced significantly the allocations for specialty hospitals like the Philippine Heart Center and National Kidney Institute for their pet projects.

Nograles is confident that the bicameral panels of the two chambers of Congress “can find a common ground and finalize a consolidated version of the 2009 budget in time for its ratification when Congress resumes session on Jan. 19 next year.”

He has instructed the head of the House contingent, lone Quirino Rep. Cua, to “immediately craft mutually acceptable proposals, which can untangle the conflicting items in the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA).”

The Speaker earlier predicted an earlier-than-usual approval of the national budget for 2009, which the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading early last month. 

“Senate President (Juan Ponce) Enrile understands the importance of the national budget and I’m confident that we will work faster in facilitating the swift ratification of the national budget,” he said.

Having been chairman of the Senate committee on finance, Nograles expects that Enrile – a former Cagayan congressman from 1992-1995 – can “steer the swift approval” of the GAA for 2009 and the 77 national bills and 692 local bills the House passed.

“As a former congressman, JPE knows how hard it is to convince more than 200 independent minds to approve a single piece of legislation,” he added.

He said Enrile has a “firm understanding” of the dynamics of the House, and this makes it easier for both the House and Senate to work together in passing measures designed to shield the public from the aftershocks of the global economic firestorm.