MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to also call for a special session of Congress from November 9 to 13 to guarantee the timely passage of the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021.
The President has already called for a special session of Congress from October 13 to 16 to allow the House of Representatives, which abruptly suspended session on October 6, to finish the final approval of the budget bill.
Drilon said a special session on his proposed dates will allow the Senate to start plenary deliberations on the proposed national budget.
According to the legislative calendar, Congress starts its break on October 17 and will resume only on November 16. Under the Constitution, the President is allowed to call for a special session “at any time.”
“We will debate on the budget from Nov. 9 to 13. We can finish it within five to seven days and allot two weeks for the bicam (bicameral conference committee),” Drilon said in an interview over dzBB.
The bicam is where the two chambers of Congress meet to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of their respective versions of the budget bill.
Drilon said his proposed holding of a special session during the one-month break will “guarantee the passage of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act on time.”
“Congress can send to Malacañang the 2021 GAA (General Appropriations Act) by the first week of December so that the President can sign it before January 1, 2021,” he added.
“Hindi pwedeng magkaroon ng reenacted budget. Dalawampung taon ko nang titiningnan ang budget, alam ko na ang sama ng epekto kapag nagkaroon ng reenacted budget lalo na ngayong may pandemya,” the senator said.
(We cannot have a reenacted budget. I have been looking at the budget for the past 20 years. I know how bad the effects of a reenacted budget can be, especially now that we are dealing with a pandemic.)
In a separate statement, Drilon stressed that it is crucial to pass the budget on time, especially amid the pandemic.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of passing the 2021 national budget on time. Just look at these alarming figures: 7.6 million families are hungry, 7.3 million lost jobs last April and 4.6 million in July, and 5.5 million of our countrymen can be pushed into poverty next without sufficient economic relief from the government” he said.
“We are facing a full-year economic contraction of 6.9% as projected by the World Bank,” he added.
A delayed approval of the budget will affect the country’s recovery from the effects inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Drilon.
‘Safety net’
He pointed out that his proposal to conduct a special session in November would serve as a “safety net” should there be delays in the bicam.
He said he does not expect the bicam to be “smooth-sailing given the huge lump-sum appropriations in the budget.”
Further, the minority leader says the Senate will have scrutinize controversial items under the proposed budget, such as the P19-billion in anti-insurgency funds, the lack of allocation for a special amelioration program, and the insufficient funding for the Department of Health, among others.