Palace welcomes development in budget impasse

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang welcomed the recent development in the budget impasse in Congress after the House of Representatives moved to recall its version of the 2019 national budget.

Lacson told reporters that San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora relayed to him that the House would recall its version of the controversial budget.

READ: House withdrawing its version of 2019 budget – Lacson

“We welcome it. We welcome that they have finally settled their differences so we hope that they would be submitting the enrolled bill and for the President to go over it and sign it if it conforms with the Constitution,” Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo told reporters in Malacañang on Monday.

“[T]he House has finally realized that whatever conflicts they have with the Senate should be set aside for the general welfare,” he added.

The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since the start of the year after Congress failed to pass the P3.757-national budget for 2019 amid allegations of questionable allocations and insertions.

A stalemate persisted even after the budget was ratified over allegations of last-minute realignments.

With the recent development in the budget impasse, Panelo said: “we would be moving forward to progress.”

The Palace official said Congress “should always look at the interest of the people as the primary objective not personal differences with members of each house.” /ee