CabSec Nograles: Duterte might sign 2019 budget before Holy Week

MANILA, Philippine — President Rodrigo Duterte might sign the 2019 national budget before Holy Week, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Tuesday.

“We are hopeful that the President will sign the budget maybe this week or next week. Hopefully before the Holy Week the President might sign it,” Nograles told reporters in Malacañang.

Malacañang received a copy of the 2019 General Appropriations Act on March 26, ending months of budget impasse between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The bill will lapse into law if the President does not act on it 30 days after it was received by his office.

Nograles said the budget was still under the “vetting” process by the Office of the President, the Department of Budget and Management and members of the executive branch.

Some senators have urged the President to veto questionable allocations in the 2019 budget such as the alleged  P75 billion pork barrel insertion.

Asked about this, Nograles said the President would surely have his veto message.

“Every year the President has a veto message and that is part of the prerogative of the President,” Nograles said.

“So ideally, by practice, by historically, there is always a veto message by the President when it comes to the budget,” he added.

Nograles however said he doesn’t not have any knowledge on the provisions of the bill that the President would veto.

The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since the start of 2019 after Congress failed to pass the P3.757 trillion national budget in 2108 due to questionable allocations and alleged pork barrel insertions.

Nograles said he wanted a “closer coordination” next time to avoid the delay in the passage of the budget.  /muf