House panel skips continuation of PCOO budget deliberations

MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on appropriations will no longer continue its deliberation on the 2021 budget of the Presidential Communications Operations Office as it will go straight to the plenary.

Panel chair Eric Yap said lawmakers decided to skip the continuation of the deliberations to be on track with the budget schedule.

Plenary debates on the proposed P4.5-trillion budget is set to start on Monday next week.

“Mas ninais namin na i-diretso na namin sa plenary para mapabilis [ang proseso] nang sagayon on track po ang aming budget schedule at sa lunes po magsisimula na kami sa plenary,” Yap told INQUIRER.net.

(We decided to put it straight to the plenary so that we will be on track with the budget schedule. We are set to start plenary debates on the budget next Monday.)

The House panel started to deliberate on the PCOO budget on September 9 but was suspended because Makabayan lawmakers denounced the “red-tagging” activities of one of the agency’s officials, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy.

Makabayan lawmakers called for the resignation of Badoy over red-tagging them without any sufficient basis.

Badoy initially rejected the call to resign, saying that she should not be the one to leave office because she had never deceived Filipinos.

However, Badoy said she is only willing to resign if the six progressive lawmakers denounce the communist rebels’ atrocities, among other conditions.

The PCOO budget deliberations were then scheduled for Friday, September 18, then postponed. It was again scheduled for continuation on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Those who want to question the budget of PCOO will be given the chance to do so during the plenary debates, Yap assured.

“Pagdating sa plenary ay talagang lahat ng tanong ay pwedeng itanong ng congressman. Kung gusto po kada isang congressman 24 hours magtanong, pwede po,” he said.

(All congressmen will be given the chance to ask their questions during the plenary. If they want to question the budget for 24 hours, they can do so.)

Is going straight to the plenary allowed?

Yap said the PCOO is not the only agency whose budget went straight to the plenary.

Such practice has been done as was in the case of the Commission on Human Rights, Philippine Sports Commission, Civil Service Commission and many others.

“Napakarami pong agencies na dumidiretso na sa plenaryo tulad ng CHR, tulad ng PSC na hindi na kailangan mag budget briefing. Yung Civil Service po. Ito talaga’y pasok sa rules dahil hindi naman po tayo papayag na gumawa ng isang hakbang na labag sa Konstitusyon,” he said.

(There are many agencies whose budgets went straight to plenary. This is allowed in the rules of Congress. We would not allow any violation of the Constitution.) [ac]