2015 budget certified urgent

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has certified the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 as urgent to expedite its approval on third and final reading today by the House of Representatives.

In a letter to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. dated Oct. 23, Aquino said he was certifying “to the necessity of the immediate enactment” of the spending measure.

He said the speedy passage of the proposed budget would “ensure budgetary preparedness that would enable the government to effectively perform its constitutional mandate of funding
various programs, projects and activities for fiscal year 2015, and in order to address the need to maintain continuous government operations following the end of the current fiscal year.”

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said the presidential certification would enable the House to approve the proposed budget on final reading.

“It will allow us to dispense with the three-day rule, which requires us to schedule final-reading vote only three days after printed copies of a bill are distributed to members,” Gonzales said.

Amended copies of the budget measure would be distributed today to House members. After that, members can proceed to vote on it.

Gonzales said the House has to pass the budget on final reading today before Congress goes on a two-week Halloween break so it can transmit the spending proposal to the Senate, which could begin considering it when sessions resume on Nov. 17.

“We have to have the 2015 budget passed by Congress and signed by the President before yearend to avoid the reenactment or recycling of the current year’s outlay,” he added.

Gonzalez noted that a recycled outlay is considered as a presidential pork barrel since it is all subject to the discretion of the President, save for funding for salaries and other mandatory obligations. Both Aquino and members of Congress do not want a reenacted budget.

Under the rules of the House, a budget that is up for third and final reading vote is not subject to further debates.

“We already had extensive discussions during the second-reading consideration of this measure,” Gonzales said.

‘P423-B DILG budget errata not true’

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House appropriations committee denied yesterday that his panel made a P423-billion budget errata or adjustment for the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who also heads the select committee the House has created to receive and approve amendments to the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget, said the claim of Bayan Muna about the huge DILG change “has absolutely no basis.”

Ungab said he could not reconcile the claim of Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate with the figures in the budget proposal.

“We cannot reconcile it because the total DILG budget is only P104.5 billion and the total GPBP (grassroots participatory budgeting program) is only P20.8 billion for all agencies with GPBP funds,” he pointed out.

Ungab said only part of the P20.8 billion would pass through the DILG.

“The issues being created regarding the budget amendments or errata are actually erroneous and misleading,” he stressed.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said he respects the opinion of Colmenares, but the lawmaker should check his facts.

“I know Congressman Colmenares. While he is entitled to his own opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts. It is not true,” Roxas added.

Ungab explained that among the “significant changes” approved by the select committee were P3.28 billion for the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next year, P998.8 million for the Bureau of Customs, P296.9 million for the Department of Tourism, P93.7 million for the Department of Trade and Industry, P34 million for the Commission on Human Rights, P3 million for the Commission on Elections, P53.5 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, P5 million for the Partido State University in Camarines Sur, and P1.790 million for GPBP.

Ungab said his committee did not approve the P8 billion for the envisioned Bangsamoro region in Mindanao proposed by the Department of Budget and Management “precisely because it was never discussed and the (draft) Bangsamoro Basic Law is not yet passed.”

As for the APEC funding, which was added to a lump sum item called International Commitments Fund, “this was brought out in the budget hearings.”

With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Christina Mendez