Senators favor bill to redefine savings

Senate President Franklin Drilon: A bill to redefine savings. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–There may be no need to pass a joint resolution redefining savings to comply with the Supreme Court ruling that partly voided the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), senators said on Monday.

Sen. Francis Escudero said Congress could define or redefine savings in the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2015 that would suit the decision.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, for his part, said a bill could do the trick.

“We can address that in the 2015 national budget and whatever their need is for 2014, we will do it through the supplemental budget. Anyway, every year we define savings in the GAA,” Escudero said.

Drilon, however, said a bill has to be passed to redefine savings.

“More or less I am in favor of the bill because we will be amending the GAA which defines savings, rather than passing a resolution,” Drilon told reporters.

He said there was a need for a law “to cover previous disbursements” under the DAP. He, however, agreed that savings should also be redefined in the 2015 GAA.

“There is a school of thought that it should emanate from the House, but let’s see,” he said.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Aquino asked Congress to pass a supplemental budget to fund projects that otherwise would be suspended because of the high court decision against the DAP.

Aquino also asked Congress to pass a joint resolution clarifying definitions of savings that were still being debated as a result of the court ruling.

In partly voiding DAP, SC justices struck down the executive branch’s practice of declaring savings from unreleased appropriations, and using unprogrammed or standby appropriations.

They ruled that savings as well as standby appropriations could only be declared at the end of the fiscal year.

Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. had agreed with Malacañang that Congress has the prerogative to change the definition of savings.