House to approve P2.6-T 2015 budget next week

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives is still on schedule to approve the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget next Friday.

This despite the suspension of session yesterday due to the typhoon and the slight delay in plenary proceedings caused by the insistence of Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco to obtain a summary of Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) releases from Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

“We are behind schedule only by a few agencies. We hope to catch up. We can still meet the second-reading plenary approval target next Friday, barring any more delay,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman and principal sponsor of the budget proposal, said yesterday.

“We have to approve a spending program for next year, otherwise, we will face the prospect of having a recycled 2014 budget. A reenacted budget will be a Malacañang pork barrel. I hope that is not what the opposition wants,” Ungab said.

The House has been working overtime since Monday to meet its budget deliberation schedule. It starts its session at 10 in the morning and continues to meet up to late into the night.

On Thursday, it failed to hold session in the morning because Tiangco questioned the quorum.

Deputy Minority Leader Carol Jane Lopez tried to get the Binay ally and House leaders to agree to resume the morning debates but to no avail. The chamber resumed session in the afternoon when Tiangco was pacified.

Lopez said seven militant party-list representatives, who all belong to the minority, “have advocacies that they want to ventilate and push for by questioning agency heads on their funds, programs, projects, activities, and policies.”

“They are the ones who have been consistently very active in the debates. We could have given the time to them,” she said.

Lopez said she thinks that as in the past, the House would be able to muster and maintain quorum on the last day of budget debates, terminate the discussions and then approve the budget.

“But by that time, we have already lost the opportunity for informed and intelligent discussions and ventilation of advocacies, which our members want to have because in the end, we in the minority cannot really derail budget approval. It’s a numbers game,” she stressed.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II admitted that part of the blame lies with the “disappearing act” of members of the majority.

“It’s also our fault. If we can sustain the quorum, Mr. Tiangco will not be able to do his thing. That’s why we are appealing to our members to stay with us until we are done with the day’s proceedings,” he said.

He said Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has met with leaders of the majority coalition to ensure sufficient plenary attendance.

Gonzales said Abad gave Tiangco on Monday night the report he was seeking.

“All the information he needs is already there. If he wants to have it in summarized form, he can do it himself, instead of asking Secretary Abad to do it for him. All it takes is a little patience,” he said.

The Navotas lawmaker complained that the report he received had many blanks on the column indicating the names of proponents of DAP projects.

“But he was told on Monday night by Secretary Abad through Chairman Ungab that in case there are blanks in the proponents’ column, that means that the proponents were the Department of Public Works and Highways and other implementing agencies,” Gonzales said.

He said Tiangco was not satisfied with the report “because he did not see the names he wanted to see.”

He said the DAP document shows the names of fund recipients among senators and House members.

“The biggest amounts were allocated to senators, including those facing plunder charges,” he said.

He was referring to Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, who are Binay allies like Tiangco, and Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., who chairs Lakas, the ruling party during the Arroyo administration.

Tiangco also questioned the decision of the House to suspend Wednesday night’s session, instead of adjourning it as he had sought.

“I just went to the bathroom to answer a call of nature and they already suspended the session. If they adjourned it, they would have to call the roll this morning and produce a journal of yesterday’s proceedings,” he said.

He said he would avoid going to the bathroom and would relieve himself in the session hall if necessary.