Quick passage of 2019 budget a ‘test’ for Arroyo leadership – Palace

House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (Photo by GABRIEL PABICO LALU /INQUIRER.net)

The prompt passage of the  P3.757-trillion proposed national budget for 2019 would be a “test” of leadership for newly-elected House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Malacañang Palace said on Tuesday.

Arroyo was elected Speaker on Monday by a vote of 184 House members after a daylong leadership row that ousted Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.

“Well, this is a test for the new House Speaker,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing.

During her term as President, Arroyo ran the government on a re-enacted budget in three of her nine years.

But Roque said Malacañang was “confident” that the 2019 budget would be “passed on time.”

“We are confident that because this budget is intended to implement Build, Build, Build which means more projects for all Congressmen and legislators as well, that it will be passed on time,” he said.

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte to Congress the 2019 proposed cash-based budget after delivering his State of the Nation Address (Sona).

“For Fiscal Year 2019, we submit for your perusal and approval, a national budget that will amplify the forces and resources to effectively and efficiently build our nation, in order to draw more of our people from the clutches of poverty and maintain law and order, so everybody lives in peaceful co-existence,” the President said in his budget message. /atm