Sotto: No copy-and-paste work on budget from House

MANILA, Philippines — There would be no copy-and-paste work on the proposed P4-trillion 2020 national budget at the Senate, according to Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday, Nov. 4.

Sotto said the Senate “cannot adopt” the House version of the budget as there were “many amendments necessary.”

In a text message to reporters, Sotto said senators had already discussed in a caucus the schedule and decided that the chamber could not just adopt the House version.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson earlier said the Senate may adopt the version transmitted by the House.

Lacson said he had already discussed this with Sotto and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and would discuss the same with Sen. Sonny Angara, who heads the committee on finance.

Sotto had predicted approval of the budget next week if the Senate took the quicker route of simply adopting the House version.

Congress’ failure to pass the 2019 national budget is being blamed for a dismal 5.5 percent growth rate in the early months of the year as the government was forced to underspend under a reenacted budget./TSB