MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is ready to “own up” and specify their amendments in the proposed P3.8 trillion national budget for 2019, appropriations committee chair and Camarines Sur 1st District Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Tuesday.
Andaya earlier said the Senate has around P190 billion worth of amendments in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), while the lower House has P50 to P60 billion.
These amendments, he added, were not “pork barrel“ but “insertions.”
“These are all insertions, these are all amendments. Whether you call it institutional or individual, agency-requested, these will all be revisions of, or in lay man’s terms, insertions in the national budget,” the lawmaker told reporters in an interview.
“Yung amin po, we are prepared to own up to what we are requesting for, down to the district level. And we are open to having the whole process open to media,Ñ Andaya said, noting that they would hold another bicameral conference committee meeting later at 6:00 p.m.
The lawmaker also said they welcomed Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s gesture to make public all his amendments in the 2019 national budget.
‘Bicam still at square one’
Andaya, meanwhile, lamented that after three Senate-House meetings on the spending bill, they’re still at “square one.”
“Hindi pa rin kami nagkakasundo kung ano ‘yung starting point ng usapan namin,” he added.
But Sen. Franklin Drilon, a member of the Senate contingent on the expenditure plan, earlier assured that there would be no “deadlock” in this year’s national budget.
READ: Drilon: No ‘deadlock’ in 2019 budget
Andaya, Drilon and Lacson have also confirmed that the bicam agreed during Monday’s meeting to remove the funding for dredging projects which Andaya said has been “prone to corruption.”
READ: Drilon, Lacson: No more budget for dredging in 2019
Not lumpsum
Andaya said the proposed amendments of the House were not lumped-sum amounts, while the Senate has yet to give out a copy of the breakdown of their proposed amendments.
“We are willing to break it down,” he said. “Ang hindi lang kasi namin na gather pa na information dahil so far ‘yung proposed amendments ng Senado, are all in general terms, shall we say lump sums.”
He meanwhile assured that all representatives would be given the chance to introduce their amendments to the GAB.
“Ah yung amendments, necessary lahat magkakaroon. Everybody will have an amendment,” Andaya said.