(Eagle News)–The Palace on Friday, April 12, said the government was ready should President Rodrigo Duterte veto the 2019 budget bill in its entirety.
Economic managers have prepared contingency plans “responsive to any conceivable event, and they will correspondingly adjust their targets, which include the execution of programs and projects relating to infrastructure as well as the delivery of basic services to the people,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
According to Panelo, “while we are very eager and devoted to implement policies that will benefit Filipinos, this administration is equally committed to being a stickler for the rule of law.”
He said “as a lawyer and strict enforcer of the rule of law, the President treads cautiously in performing his constitutional duty making sure that before he inks his signature to the document, the latter does not violate our Constitution, as well as related jurisprudence on the matter.”
“In the light of the serious accusations hurled by the House and the Senate against each other on certain unconstitutional insertions, the Office of the President (OP) is exercising utmost care in the review and evaluation of the (General Appropriations Bill),” he said.
The Senate has criticized the House-enrolled budget bill for allegedly containing illegal “alignments” that were made post-Congress ratification, something House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya called mere “itemizations.”
To break the impasse between the two houses of Congress, Senate President Tito Sotto signed the House-enrolled bill for transmittal to the Office of the President but with “strong reservations,” leaving it up to Duterte to decide whether to veto the controversial provisions.
In a speech on Thursday, April 11, Duterte said he would “outright” veto the budget bill “pag tagilid iyan.”
He had warned against the dangers of a reenacted budget, but said he would not sign an “illegal document.”