Speaker Feliciano Belmonte INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday said the House of Representatives is willing to hold a special session to pass the proposed P2.606 trillion national budget for 2015.
The chamber is conducting its plenary debates on the measure and targets to pass the budget by September 26, before it goes on a break.
“If it cannot be done by the 26, then we’ll just have to extend it (in a) special session,” Belmonte told reporters on Monday.
Belmonte said the extension will only range from two to three days. “It shouldn’t be more than that,” the Speaker said.
Belmonte urged members of the House to attend the plenary debates for the floor to reach a quorum, which constitutes a majority or 146 members of the 290-strong chamber.
The chamber has scheduled a week-long plenary debate so they could pass the budget on second reading by September 26.
But the plenary debates were stalled last week due to the onslaught of Tropical Storm “Mario,” which prompted the cancellation of work in the chamber on Friday. The debates were also delayed due to the supposed lack of quorum pointed out by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco of the opposition.
Tiangco said he would question the quorum until Budget Secretary Florencio Abad fulfills his commitment to submit to the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) lawmaker the complete report on the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the so-called pork barrel of the president. The Supreme Court ruled some parts of DAP unconstitutional.
Tiangco on Monday again questioned the quorum but the lawmakers present overruled his motion to suspend the debates.
Davao city Rep. Isidro Ungab, who chairs the House appropriations committee, assured that the chamber would beat the deadline in approving the budget.
“We are delayed by a few agencies but we will try our best to pass the budget this week,” said Ungab.
The proposed 2015 budget is 15.1 percent higher than the approved 2014 budget worth P2.265 trillion.
According to sectors, social services will receive the lion’s share at P967.852 billion or 37.14 percent of the total budget, followed by economic services at P700.198 billion or 26.87 percent share, general public services at P423.057 billion or 16.23 percent share, debt burden at P399.363 billion or 15.33 percent share, and defense at P115.530 billion or 4.43 percent share.
Meanwhile, by agencies, the Department of Education will receive the highest budget at P365 billion, followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways at P300.5 billion, Department of National Defense at P144 billion, Department of the Interior and Local Government at P141.1 billion, Department of Social Welfare and Development at P109 billion, Department of Health at P102.2 billion, Department of Agriculture at P88.8 billion, Department of Transportation and Communications at P59.5 billion, Department of Environment and Natural Resources at P21.3 billion, and the judiciary at P20.3 billion.
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