Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri (Photo from a video by the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — A special session of Congress is being eyed to prevent a delay in the passage of the national budget for 2021 after the House of Representatives set aside further plenary deliberations on the spending bill until Nov. 16.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III has been in touch with both House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Malacañang, through Executive Secretary Medialdea, to discuss possible scenarios for the proposed P4.5 trillion budget for next year, according to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
“One scenario is to just allow the suspension to continue and we would just do our job here until October 15 and then just adjourn until November 15 and go then back to work November 16, await the report from the House,” Zubiri told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Another scenario, he said, is that Malacañang will call for a special session during the congressional break — which is from Oct. 17 to Nov. 15 — for the House to pass the budget bill on final reading and for the Senate to officially receive the approved spending measure.
“That is on the table also with Malacañang so that the third reading of the budget could immediately be finished [in the House] and they could pass it on to us,” Zubiri said, speaking partly in Filipino.
On Tuesday, Cayetano and his allies moved to suspend the House session until Nov. 16 after the unexpected second reading approval of the General Appropriations Bill (House Bill No. 7727 ), which contains the proposed national budget for 2021.
With the lower chamber suspending its session until Nov. 16 and the spending bill approved only on second reading, the budget bill will not reach the Senate before it goes on break on Oct. 17.
Zubiri explained that, without the approved budget from the House, the Senate could not deliberate on it in plenary.
“We cannot act on the floor. There cannot be any plenary action until the budget is submitted to us and when we say ‘submitted,’ it should be approved on third reading in the House,” he said.
He said the House could probably transmit the budget to the Senate a week after the resumption of the session on Nov. 16 as the speakership row heated up in the lower chamber between Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.
“[They’re] excited at the House now. So they might have some intramurals. They’re still slugging it out [“bakbakan”]. So we’re giving them that week to be able to pass it on third reading,” Zubiri said.
“When they pass it on third reading, it will still have to be printed. That will take several days. So we’re looking at a probable earliest that they can bring the budget to us on the 23rd [of November]. So we lose a week,” he added.
Still, Zubiri said it would be better if the House could transmit its approved budget bill to the Senate so that senators would have time to study the lower chamber’s amendments and immediately deliberate on it on the resumption of the session.
“If the had passed it on third reading [before the break], a copy could be printed during the break,” he said. “ We will then be able to study their amendments and we can already incorporate the planned amendments for the Senate before we enter into the plenary debates,” he said.
Under that scenario, he said the Senate could finish its plenary debates on the budget in the first week of December, approve it on third reading, and then commence on the bicameral conference committee and ratification by the last week of December.
“What happened was we lost one week,” he said. “That’s conservative because we still don’t know [what will happen]. As I mentioned earlier, they still might have intramural when they return. Definitely, we’ll be delayed. The best-case scenario [is that] we’re delayed one week. Worst case scenario — could be delayed for two weeks.”
If Congress fails to pass the budget before the 2020 General Appropriations Act expires on December 31 this year, the national government will have to operate under a reenacted budget in 2021.
“The clash will happen in the plenary. That’s where it will take time. That is why I’m worried. The plenary debates [in the Senate] will take a while,” Zubiri said.
“But if it’s in November when they go on third reading — and there’s still a possible delay in printing — we won’t be able to study their amendments. We will take a bit longer and it will not be the fault of the Senate,” he added.
Cayetano, meanwhile, said the House would vote on the final approval of the proposed national budget for 2021 on the resumption of the lower chamber’s session on Nov. 16. They will then submit the approved bill to the Senate the following day.
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