(Eagle News)—House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. maintained on Thursday, March 14, that the House of Representatives would not accept the “lump-sum” version of the proposed national budget even if it has already been ratified by both chambers of Congress, but at the same time welcomed “any effort” to break the Senate-House impasse.
According to Andaya, the House was “steadfast in its mission of itemizing all lump-sum funds in the 2019 General Appropriations Act,” after all.
Andaya, however, appeared to take note of the Senate’s proposal for a special session of Congress to discuss the contentious issues in the proposed national budget, saying the House’s “lines remain open for a dialogue with the Senate.”
“Set the date and place, we will be there..,” Andaya said.
Senate President Tito Sotto revealed Senator Panfilo Lacson’s proposal for the special session after the budget impasse between the Senate and the House remained even after President Rodrigo Duterte stepped in and met with both of the chambers’ leaders on Tuesday, March 12.
Sotto said under the proposal, he would sign the budget bill containing what the House calls a “lumpsum,” and then this would be transmitted to Duterte.
The President, he said, would then veto the “lumpsum” identified by the House, and the vetoed portions could then be discussed in the special session and a supplemental budget on the same passed.
Lacson has decried the House’s tweaking of the proposed national budget ratified by both houses of Congress as a form of manipulation.
The House through Andaya said, however, that they were merely “itemizing” the proposed budget so it would be easier to scrutinize.
The government has been operating on a reenacted budget in the absence of the passage of a 2019 budget law, with Lacson expressing fears this could remain as such until August, when the terms of the present House leaders would have expired and the passage of a budget bill was possible.