House seen passing 2015 budget by Wednesday

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MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives is expected to approve within the next few days a 2015 national budget reflecting changes introduced at the last minute by the Department of Budget and Management, such as “realignments within department or agency budgets.”

Appropriations committee chair Isidro Ungab admitted Friday that the DBM had actually resubmitted 100 pages of “errata” to the proposed P2.606-trillion national expenditure program that had been withdrawn by the agency last month after the chamber passed the proposed budget on second reading.

He said the DBM again submitted its proposed changes to the small committee formed on the plenary floor to deliberate on the amendments introduced by individual House members.

“The amendments previously submitted [on] the last day of plenary consideration of the budget were withdrawn by the DBM but were re-submitted during the small committee deliberations on the amendments,” Ungab said.

Among the salient points of the DBM’s amendments was the disaggregation of Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Program projects, many of which previously were listed only as “various projects” as the local governments had yet to identify which particular items to prioritize under the program, he said

This was in order for the budget law to “fully comply with the law, the Constitution and recent [Supreme Court] rulings on the matter,” Ungab said.

“There are also realignments within the department or agency budgets,” he said, as well as “some proposed increases like the APEC [Summit],

etc., which the committee carefully scrutinized and reconsidered.”

Asked if he would consider the changes substantive, Ungab said the amendments had been carefully studied by the committee, and that such changes were mostly in response to questions raised during committee and plenary deliberations.

“We must understand that these amendments such as realignments were fully dealt with and scrutinized not only during the committee but also during the plenary deliberations – as most of the realignments are also offshoots of the questions raised during the committee and plenary deliberations,” he said.

He said some of the realignments involved responses to questions brought up by lawmakers about, among other issues, the frequent bogging down of the Metro Rail Transit, and problems at Philippine seaports and airports.

“Some are minor items like additional provisions for the ‘Go Negosyo’ program of the Department of Trade and Industry, allocations for recall elections, absentee voting and continuing registration, which were all brought up in the committee briefings and plenary,” he said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier said the chamber would pass the proposed budget on Wednesday. The House version of the budget will undergo scrutiny by, first, the Senate, and, second, a bicameral conference composed of senators and representatives, who will pass it into law.

But Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares threatened to derail the passage of the budget, arguing that the House never deliberated on the errata submitted by the DBM.

“How can we pass this budget when the errata has not been shown, let alone deliberated by Congress?” he said.

“We have received reports that the errata are not mere typographical errors but very substantive and in line with Malacanang’s plan to change the meaning of savings to legalize DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program),” he said.

“We will do all we can to stop this underhanded move even if we reach the Supreme Court,” Colmenares said.

In voiding the DAP, the Supreme Court ruled that savings and standby appropriations can be declared only at the end of the fiscal year. But the DBM redefined savings in the proposed budget law in such a way that allocations for projects that are discontinued for whatever reason may be declared savings even before yearend.