{"id":271235,"date":"2020-10-08T07:32:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T11:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=271235"},"modified":"2020-10-08T07:32:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T11:32:54","slug":"malacanang-may-call-for-special-session-to-pass-2021-natl-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/08\/malacanang-may-call-for-special-session-to-pass-2021-natl-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaca\u00f1ang may call for special session to pass 2021 nat’l budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Roque said the Palace may call for a special session by December 14 to avoid operating on a reenacted budget amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.(File photo: Malaca\u00f1ang Palace.jpg) [Public domain]<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday said that it may call for a special session to ensure the timely passage of the proposed PHP4.5 trillion national budget for 2021.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after Senator Paniflo Lacson warned that the House of Representatives’ postponement of its third and final reading of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) by a month could lead to a reenacted budget.<\/p>\n

Roque said the Palace may call for a special session by December 14 to avoid operating on a reenacted budget amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung kinakailangan talaga, meron naman pong<\/em>\u00a0Dec. 14\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0adjournment for Christmas\u00a0ang Kongreso. Kung talagang kinakailangan<\/em>\u00a0after the 14th,\u00a0dun po magpapatawag ng<\/em>\u00a0special session.\u00a0Wala naman pong<\/em>\u00a0prejudice\u00a0\u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(If it is really necessary, Congress has Dec. 14 adjournment for Christmas. If it\u2019s necessary after the 14th, a special session will be called. There is no prejudice there),\u201d he said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

The House was supposed to pass the GAB, which contains the proposed 2021 national budget by Oct. 14, two days before it was scheduled to go on a month-long recess.<\/p>\n

However, the House suspended its session until Nov. 16 after hastily approving the GAB on second reading on Tuesday (Oct. 6).<\/p>\n

Roque insisted that there would still be enough time for the Senate to pass the proposed national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate can continue its own deliberations on the budget kasi hindi naman \u2018yan nakadepende sa pagtatapos ng budget sa House (because it does not depend on the completion on the budget in the House),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the need for the timely passage of the proposed 2021 budget which will fund the government\u2019s projects and programs to help Filipinos cope with the impact of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

He also refused to comment on allegations that House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is holding the proposed budget hostage amid his speakership row with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, saying that it is a purely internal matter of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Under the term-sharing agreement, Cayetano would serve as the Speaker until October 2020 while Velasco would supposedly take over and assume the position until the 18th Congress ends in 2022.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Lacson said it is impossible for the Senate and the House to ratify the proposed 2021 budget before the year ends, warning that it may lead to a reenacted budget.<\/p>\n

The Senate had hoped to receive the House’s final version of the budget bill by Oct. 14 so they could begin working on it during the break from the session.<\/p>\n

With the House\u2019s move, the Senate would be receiving the GAB after the session resumes on Nov. 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday said that it may call for a special session to ensure the timely passage of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":87883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271241,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271235\/revisions\/271241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}