Members of the Senate and House of Representatives meet at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City on January 22, 2019 to start the congressional bicameral conference on the proposed 2019 national budget. PHOTO by Patricia Ann V. Roxas/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Senators and members of the House of Representatives have set the ground rules for an “orderly, transparent, and speedy” bicameral conference on the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, House appropriations committee chair Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said Tuesday.
The Camarines Sur 1st District congressman said the Senate and House contingents met at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City on Tuesday afternoon for around 40 minutes to begin the bicameral conference phase.
“This refutes the repeated lies peddled that the House wants a re-enacted budget when all our actions prove that we want a new one,” Andaya added in a statement.
The former House Majority Leader also vowed to “find a common ground that will benefit the people” and to “push for full transparency” in the bicameral conference deliberations.
Other members of the House contingent to the meeting were Reps. Ma. Carmen Zamora, Rodante Marcoleta, Edcel Lagman, Federico Sandoval II, Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado, Yedda Marie Romualdez, Corazon Nunez-Malanyaon, Arthur Yap, Jesus Romualdo, and Minority Leader Danilo Suarez.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate finance panel, as well as Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators JV Ejercito and Nancy Binay were also present in the meeting.
The meeting came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed its version of the national budget on Monday.
READ: Bicam clash looms as Senate OKs budget bill
Legarda earlier said they removed some road right of way allocations under the Department of Public Works and Highways, as well as projects that were not part of the department’s original submission to the Department of Budget and Management. /ee