Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. during a press briefing at the House of Representatives on Jan. 16, 2019. (Photo by NOY MORCOSO / INQUIRER.net)
Updated @ 11:01 p.m., Jan. 30, 2019
MANILA, Philippines — Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., who chairs House appropriations panel, again pushed for the abandonment of the cash-based budgeting system proposed this year by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Andaya, who leads the House contingent in the bicameral conference on the 2019 national budget, proposed that Congress scrap proposed cash-based budgeting system and extend the national budget’s capital outlays and maintenance and other operating expenses, except for personnel services up to two years, which had been the usual practice.
The congressman argued that the proposal had “no legal basis.”
He said it could even “cause more harm than good from the standpoint of implementing agencies,” and could “cause ballooning of of accounts payables which opens the doors for corruption.”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon backed Andaya’s proposal, arguing that adopting a cash-based budget would be “extremely difficult,” with 2019 being an election year and the enactment of the budget already delayed.
“Maybe we can consider favorably the proposal of Congressman Andaya because this year is very peculiar. This is an election year and there can be no disbursement when the ban takes place,” Drilon said during the Wednesday Senate-House conference meeting at the Manila Polo Club in Makati. “It’s simply impossible.”
Sen. Loren Legarda, leader of the Senate contingent and chair of the upper chamber’s finance committee, said she was “inclined to agree” with Andaya but asked time to consult other senators first.
“But I assure you it will not be a deal breaker,” she added.
But for Andaya, abandoning the cash-based budgeting system was already a done deal, saying that the system had already been “junked” with Legarda having “the 100 percent authority to deal with this matter.”
The country is currently operating under the 2018 reenacted budget while Congress has yet to approve this year’s expenditure plan.
Andaya said Congress was sticking to its earlier target to ratify the General Appropriations Bill by Feb. 6.
He said he would meet with Legarda later on Wednesday and over the weekend to lay the format for the itemization of their lump sum amendments in the spending bill.
In the same meeting, Andaya also proposed to increase the cap for the amendments in the National Expenditure Plan from the initial P50 billion to P200 billion.
Both contingents agreed with this, but the manner of realignment and the source of funds to be realigned would still have to be discussed.
These developments and agreements by the bicameral conference dispel, for now, the possibility of continuing with a reenacted budget as earlier suggested by Senate President Vicente Sotto III amid allegations of pork barrel insertions in the 2019 budget. /atm
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