House finally
3y JESS DIAZ
After mixed signals from
he leadership o{ the House
)f Representatives, the cham-
rer is finally recalling the
1019 budeet bill it has sent to
he SenatE and which Senate
'resident Vicente Sotto lll
ras rcfused to sign for being
rupposedly constitutionally
luestionable.
In a statement yesterday,
rppropriations committee
hairmah Camarines Sur Rep.
lolando Andaya Jr. said the
louse has dispatched its
;ecretary general to the Sen-
rte "to physically retrieve the
rudget books that we sent to
he senators."
calls its 2019 budget bill
"This is in line with the
Speaker's instruction to allow
a last-ditch effort to break the
budget impasse. The Speaker
has also instructed us to {orm
a three-man House team that
will meet with their Senate
counterparts to address con-
tentious issues on the 2019
general appropriations bill
(GAB)," he said.
He said they are aiming to
agree in five days on what ver-
sion of the budget to send to
President Duterte for signing
into law.
"We want to make it cleaa
though. We are not withdraw-
ing or backtracking from our
eailier position. We maintain
that the House did nothing
unconstitutional, illegal or
irregular when we approved
and ratified the 2019 GAB in
plenary session " he said.
Andaya appealed to his col-
leagues and senators to "not
debate on the merits of their
position through the media"
and to discuss issueC in formal
meetinss,
Sott6 has refusdd to sign
the House-printed budget bill
because he claims it contains
billions in realignments lead-
ers of the larger chamber made
after the bicameral conference
. committee (bicam) report on
the final version of the budget
was approved last Feb. 8..
Such post-approval chang-
es, which Sotto said rcsulted in
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Fla.rr-- P "
cr)
the loss of huge allocations for
at least 62 districts and which
a.llotments were allegedly giv-
en to favored members, were
illegal and unconsdtutional.
Andaya said what they
did was to "itemize" or sup-
port with a list of proiects
lump sums he and his Senate
counterpart had agreed on in
February shorlly before the
Senate and the House ratified
the bicam report.
On Tuesday, San Juan Rep.
Ronaldo Zamora announced
that Speaker Gloria Macapa-
gal-Arroyo has authorized
him to tell senators t}le House
was withdrawing the budget
bill.
Arroyo, however, later said
her chamber was not recall- ate and the House "are autho-
ing the measure. Sotto said rized separately to complete
thev were confused with the the details within the ceilings."
.miied signals coming from He said the House did notl
the House. breach those ceilings and didl
The Senate has been call- nothing illegal or unconstitu-i
ing on the House to instead tional -
transmit the approved budget Senate President Sotto was
without realignments and as glad the House secretary gen-
.
contained in the approved eral retrieved the copy of the
bicam report. That version has 2019budget earlier sent to the
lump sums, which Sotto said Senate.
the President could veto. "I welcome the retrieval,
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Al- I could have sent it back for
bay supported the stand of being unfaithful to what was
the House. approved by the .bicam and
As former appropriations ratified in plenary but I did
committee chairman, he said ' ndt as prudence dictates. Our
traditionally, the bicam ap- ' Congress is bicameral. It's
proves budget ceilings for very elementary," Sotto said.
dach agency but that the Sen- Turn to Page 9
I
 HOUSO FromPaeeg
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Sotto refused
to iien the copv as verificaLion made
fv til? I-"eittuti,i" Budget Research and
rio"iio.itig Off ice (LB-RMO) indicated
that there were alterations made.
"Orr the oart of the Senafe, kung ano yun
innviubahai af (what was approved and)
i^dfiud bv th" Suttate and House of Reprc-
ong dapati+ubm\lsa Pangulo
^tuiu"i,uu,
ishould beient to-the Presidentl" said Lac-
son in an interview c.ver dzMM
He said the President has the power to
veto oortions of the P3.757-trillion nation-
He, howeve4 said this could be
"ibuhset.
manae"ed throueh a supplemental budget
io be iassed bvaoth H6use and Senate'
Eiler, Lacion said he is against !n-
satiablv ereedv politicians, eipecially
those #hd lust iffer pork barrel funds, in
t ioo*" to some Hbuse members who
to accuse him of "vendetta" in
"otitittrr"
a"no'uncins po.k in the 2019 budget'
Lacson ieiterated his actions against
nork barrel in the 2019 budget are not
'about anv individual congressman or
.""aior, ULt about his crusade against the
oorkbarrel svstem and the national bud-
!et, which is'the lifeblood of the country'
Department funds
Funds intended to helP the Poor alg
lodeed with the Department of Health
rittiu) and Deparhnbnt of Social Welfare
and Developmi:nt (DSWD) have dried up
due to the delav in the enactment of the
proDosed national budgei for this year;
iot st"t.*"n .o*plained yesterday'
Eiucation Secietary L'eonor Briones
said public school teaihers and students
are aiso bound to suffer with the continu-
ine delav in lhe passage ofthe 2019 budget
Dtpartment of-Education (DepEd)'
"f"the
Earliei, the Department of Transporta-
tion said the reh;bilitaiion of Metro Rail
i.".tiis ,i".* Edsa could not be started
blcause fundi for it are contained in the
still-to-be-enacted 2019 budget.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis liaymund VrJ-
lafuerte fauLted the leidership of the House
of ReDresentatives for tlre de lay in the en act-
merdof the spending program for this year'
Teachers to suffCr
As oolitical debate over the budget
rages, bepEd appealed to lawmakers to
.oiiia"t iftu pebirle who are- affected by
*"-Luae"t a.jtav, including thousands of
t ..tt"ti*tto miv suffer if ilre new bud get
';ih"immediatelY aPProved
'" not
is
b"prtttn6nt'6f Education is the
t"tpeii aee;cv in the government We su{-
il-.in" *"ost. iv" have-the most number of
ernptovu"t, we have proiects which
"e*
*u au.tn'ot li-titiut" We hav-e accountabili-
ti"t *hi.h *" .uttoot settle," Briones said
at a press conJerence last MondaY'
"it would be apProPriate if we shiit
our-ittention to t osd who suffer the
co*"qt,"tt."t of this.prolonged debate"'
she added.
DeoEd Undersecretary for finance An-
nalvn'Sevilla said their'division offices
weie able to work around the lack of new
bud.set to prorride salaries to some 100,000
ne*iy hlr'ed teachers whose salaries are
lods6d in the 2019 budget.
fio*"u"t, she saidlheY might face
. nroblems in releasing the salaries of teach-
lrs if no newbudgetis approvedby April
- '\E are worl,ing with the Departm.ent
of Budget and. Minagement (DBM) to
find out where these teachers are so we
can reouest for the additional funding out
of the'Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits
Fund," she said.
Sevilla said DePEd Personnel, like
-empioyees,
other sovernment are also
waitinE for the salarv ihcrease provided
rrnder"the fourth tr;nche of the salary
standardization directive issued by for-
mer Dresident Benigno Aquino III'
"fhis amourts L6 aboui P20 billion as
we have more than 800,000 personnel in
the Department of Educatiori and all our
8rc acludlly woiting for that
"tplti""t
'--trAnoih*, said.
ineiease," she
budg,et ilenr under
2019 budeet "*p".ted
is ihe annurl medical eram
oi our teaihers. lf lhe 2019 Ceneral Appro-
priations Act will be apprpved, there wlll
6e a buoeet item of fSoo per teacher to
I"""t f*itt"iirn"dical exa;," she added
- With Cecitte Suerte Felip€, Jhnvic Mateo
o
Fr\g.r- E ''
t{)