Senate to require physical attendance of agency heads in budget debates

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will require the physical attendance of agency heads during the plenary deliberations on the proposed P5.024-trillion 2022 budget, Senator Sonny Angara said Tuesday.

“Yun ang isang napag-agreehan dun sa caucus (on Monday), i-require yung heads of agencies to attend physically,” Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, told reporters in an online interview.

(That’s one of the things we agreed on during our caucus, to require the head of agencies to attend physically.)

“Not only the heads of agencies but also the sponsors of the budget, so myself, as well as the nine or 10 vice chairpersons have to be there physically when we’re sponsoring the budget,” he added.

Angara has endorsed for plenary approval the 2022 General Appropriations Bill, prompting marathon sessions in the Senate.

The upper chamber will open the deliberations Wednesday morning and will start off with the general principles of the budget budget.

Meanwhile, the proposed budgets of the Department of Finance, the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Budget and Management will also be among those to be scrutinized on the floor Wednesday afternoon.

According to Angara, senators also agreed to the schedule to ensure that the budget will be passed on time.

“Nakiusap ako sa ating mga kasamahan kagabi sa caucus na as much as possible we stick to the schedule kahit mag puyatan tayo, 10 hanggang hating gabi, wag lang yung magkaroon tayo ng reenacted budget,” he said.

(I asked my colleagues last night that we stick to the schedule as much as possible even if we continue until very late in the evening, 10 pm up until midnight, so we don’t have a reenacted budget.)

“And agree naman yung mga senators na hindi magandang na magkaroon ng reenacted budget,” he added.

(The senators agreed that it would not be ideal to have a reenacted budget.)

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