Solon defends House’s P9.5-B ‘institutional amendments’

The chair of the House Committee on Public Accounts said that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano should be actually commended for making public the realignments made by the House, in the same way, that Lacson has publicized his amendments to the budget. (File Photo: House of Representatives of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — The PHP9.5-billion in realignments introduced by the House of Representatives in the proposed PHP4.1 trillion 2020 budget is no different from the realignments made by the Senate during the budget process, a ranking House member said Tuesday.

In a press conference, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Michael Defensor cited the so-called “institutional amendments” that Senator Panfilo Lacson introduced in the 2019 budget, which he published in his official social media accounts.

“The institutional amendments by the House, hindi naman kaiba dun sa ginagawa ni Senator Ping (it’s no different from what Senator Ping has been doing). Yun din yan (It’s the same),” Defensor said during the regular Ugnayan sa Batasan media forum.

“In fact, mga (the) institutional amendments ni (of) Senator Ping that time was PHP51 billion, compared to the PHP9.5 billion na ginawa ng House (of the House),” he added.

The chair of the House Committee on Public Accounts said that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano should be actually commended for making public the realignments made by the House, in the same way, that Lacson has publicized his amendments to the budget.

“I’d like to commend Senator Ping for publicizing and making clear the amendments he made to the budget. In the same manner that our Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, in behalf of Congress, pinublish din nya (he also published it),” Defensor said.

On Monday, Cayetano bared the institutional amendments that were introduced by the House in the proposed 2020 budget.

Among the PHP9.5-billion realignments included the PHP3.5 billion allocated to the Department of Agriculture (DA) for purchase of palay from local farmers (PHP3 billion) and for Quick Response Fund (PHP500 million) to respond to emergency situations like the African swine fever (ASF).

Also included is the PHP800 million for the Department of Education (DepEd) for the improvement of the K-12 program and for model daycare centers nationwide; the PHP200 million budget augmentation to the Department of Health (DOH); and a PHP500-million additional budget to the UP-Philippine General Hospital for the provision of medical services, among others.

“Eto yung ginawa ng Kongreso na institutional amendments at ito yung mga nakikita namin para mas maging mainam, mas maging maayos, hindi lamang ang kalagayan sa ngayon, kundi para dun sa kinabukasan ng ating mga kabataan, sa problema ng ating magsasaka (These are the institutional amendments made by the House, and these are what we deemed that would make better not only the situation now, but for the future of our youth, for the problems faced by our farmers) and so on and so forth,” Defensor said.

“So, I hope that this settles the issue. Walang pork, walang parking of funds, walang delay sa budget (No pork, no parking of funds, no budget delay,” he said.

The solon also assured that the House-approved budget will pass the scrutiny of Lacson and the Senate as a whole.

“I would like to assure the good senator and the Senate of the Philippines, hindi lang masaya ang Kongreso, pati kayo sasaya sa ginawang trabaho ng budget sa Kongreso (the House is not the only one happy, even you will be happy with the work the House did to the budget),” Defensor said.

He also expressed optimism that the Senate will also bare their respective realignments to the budget before the bicameral conference committee is convened to give the House enough time to go over the Senate amendments.

“I hope that the Senate will also do and follow what Speaker Cayetano did, that even before the submission, klinaro na nya yung lahat ng mga (he already clarified all the) amendments that we introduced in the House,” Defensor said.