PRRD to sign 2020 budget by 1st week of January

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte affixes his signature at the Gymnasium of the GSIS Financial Center in Pasay City on June 19, 2018. REY BANIQUET/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte will likely sign the proposed PHP4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 by first week of January, Malacañang said Thursday.

“Sabi niya (Duterte) January, first week (He said it will be by first week of January),” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press conference with Palace reporters.

Panelo, however, did not give any exact date of the possible signing of the proposed budget for next year.

On Dec. 11, Congress ratified the final version of the PHP4.1-trillion national budget bill for 2020, in an attempt to avoid another scenario of a reenacted budget.

From January to mid-April this year, the national government was forced to operate under a reenacted 2018 budget due to the delayed passage of the 2019 budget.

Lawmakers followed a strict timeline for the ratification of the proposed 2020 budget, despite the alleged last-minute insertions worth PHP83 billion made in the last few days of the bicameral deliberations.

Last week, Senator Panfilo Lacson claimed that there are some 1,253 budget items worth PHP83.219 billion that are being listed as congressmen’s “source” of their “list” of 742 projects amounting to PHP16.342 billion for 2020.

He noted that the biggest shares of the supposed insertions were distributed to Albay (PHP670 million), Cavite (PHP580 million), Sorsogon (PHP570 million), Batangas (PHP502 million), Bulacan (PHP440 million), Pangasinan (PHP420 million), and Cebu (PHP410 million).

Panelo said President Duterte is still reviewing the proposed 2020 budget.

He maintained, however, that the President would get rid of items that will be proven “unconstitutional”.

“He will go through that. ‘Di ba ganoon si Presidente, mabusisi bago pumirma (The President scrutinizes it first before he signs it, doesn’t he)? Let’s wait. Basta ‘pag (If it’s) unconstitutional), he will veto. ‘Pag hindi, tuloy (But if it’s not unconstitutional, it will not be removed),” Panelo said.

“Kasi ganito ‘yun (Because this is how it goes), when somebody says it’s unconstitutional, it doesn’t mean it’s unconstitutional. This President is a lawyer, he knows what is unconstitutional or not. So he decides for himself kung tama ba itong sinasabi nitong isang tao o hindi (if the claim of that person is true or not),” he added.

While the President has yet to approve the proposed 2020 budget, he signed on Dec. 20 a law extending the availability of the 2019 national budget until December 31, 2020 to allow the continued appropriation of budget earmarked for items included in this year’s spending plan.

Republic Act (RA) 11464, which was signed by Duterte on Dec. 20, authorizes the use of PHP1.161-trillion unobligated funds under the 2019 GAA until the entire 2020.

Around PHP324.758 billion of the PHP1.161-trillion unobligated funds are for maintenance and other operating expenses, while the remaining PHP339.53 billion are for capital outlays.