{"id":271619,"date":"2020-10-12T22:28:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T02:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=271619"},"modified":"2020-10-12T22:28:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T02:28:54","slug":"prrd-wants-2021-budget-to-be-sole-topic-of-special-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/12\/prrd-wants-2021-budget-to-be-sole-topic-of-special-session\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD wants 2021 budget to be sole topic of special session"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo R. Duterte (Presidential photo by Ace Morandante via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte wants the proposed PHP4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 to be the sole topic of discussions when the House of Representatives holds its special session from Oct. 13 to 16.<\/p>\n

In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte no longer wanted to be involved in the speakership row which threatens the timely passage of the proposed national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny talk of speakership will delay the passage of the 2021 budget,\u201d he said, adding that Duterte did not care who would sit as House Speaker.<\/p>\n

Roque said lawmakers were free to dispute over the speakership, but only after the proposed budget is passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng siguradung-sigurado po na sinabi ng Presidente,<\/em>\u00a0in the Visayan, \u2018Natagam na\u2019ko diyan sa pulitika.\u2019 Dalang-dala na ako sa pulitika. Bahala na kayo kung anong gusto ninyong gawin. Pero, meanwhile, ang pakiusap niya ipasa ang<\/em>\u00a02021 budget (What the President said is, in the Visayan \u2018I\u2019m fed up with politicking\u2019. Do whatever you want. But meanwhile, he is appealing to them to pass the 2021 budget),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not favoring anyone<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Roque, Duterte was not favoring either Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco as speaker of the lower chamber of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung mayroon pong mga nagsasabi diyan na<\/em>\u00a0the President is endorsing one over the other,\u00a0hindi po totoo iyan<\/em>\u00a0(If there are people saying that the President is endorsing one over the other, it\u2019s not true),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte is hoping that the proposed budget would be passed by Oct. 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala na po siyang pakialam. Bahala na ang mga members ng Kongreso ang pumili pero matapos po nilang maipasa ang<\/em>\u00a0budget hopefully on October 16 (He doesn\u2019t care. It\u2019s up to members of Congress to select their speaker but after they pass the budget hopefully on Oct. 16),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque said the timely passage of the proposed 2021 budget should be the top priority of the Congress amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Duterte, through Proclamation 1027, called on the Congress to hold a special session on October 13 to 16 to “resume the congressional deliberations on the proposed 2021 national budget and to avoid any further delays on the prompt passage thereof in accordance with the Constitution and applicable laws, rules, and regulations”.<\/p>\n

Cayetano and Velasco are currently embroiled in a fight for the highest position in the House of Representatives despite a supposed term-sharing agreement.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement brokered by Duterte, Cayetano is to serve as Speaker in the first 15 months of the 18th Congress, then Velasco takes over the remaining 21 months beginning this month.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a total of 186 House members elected Velasco as next Speaker in a remote plenary session at the Celebrity Sports Plaza in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

Cayetano, however, insisted that the session where Velasco was elected was \u201cfake\u201d as it was held outside the session hall of the House of Representatives at Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte wants the proposed PHP4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 to be the sole topic of discussions when …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":268688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271619","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\/271619","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=271619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271620,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271619\/revisions\/271620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}