By Charmaine A. Tadalan
Reporter
THE House of Representatives and the Senate plan to transmit the P3.757-trillion national budget to the Office of the President this week, as agreed during a Monday meeting intended to resolve the budget impasse.
“That’s the common agenda, that’s the bilateral objective — to have this 2019 National Budget sent to Malacañang for the President’s signature, the soonest possible time without any further delay,” Albay-1st district Rep. Edcel C. Lagman told reporters in a chance interview after the meeting.
“The dialogue is in progress. We’re going to meet again tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. The Senate panel will have to talk with the Senate President. Hopefully, by tomorrow night, we can resolve the impasse. As long as we’re talking there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he added, noting Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III was not at the meeting.
In a “last-ditch effort” to break the deadlock, the House on March 20 “physically retrieved” the printed copies of the national budget, signed by Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which were transmitted to the Senate on March 11.
House Appropriations Committee chair Rolando G. Andaya, Jr. of the 1st district of Camarines Sur said aside from agreeing to do away with a reenacted budget, the House contingent also explained the budget process to the Senate.
“There are no more contentious points. We had a very lively conversation. We were able to explain both our sides in a very conducive manner for understanding at hopefully, maybe tomorrow, we’ll be able to come to an agreement,” Mr. Andaya said in a chance interview on Monday.
On the issue of lump sum appropriations, he said: “We explained to each other the history of what we did. There was some re-visiting of practices (from similar situations) in 1987,” he said.
The lump sums underwent a process of “itemization” by members of the House after the bicameral conference committee ratified the document, which became a point of contention between both chambers. The Senate is insisting on the version agreed by its representatives in bicameral session, while the House claims the itemization of lump sums minimizes corruption.
Also present during the meeting were San Juan Rep. Ronaldo B. Zamora and Senators Panfilo M. Lacson and Loren B. Legarda. The latter chairs the Finance committee. Mr. Andaya noted that Mr. Lagman and Mr. Zamora were chosen for the chamber’s three-man team for their experience in budget legislation.
He said the panel hopes to transmit the budget to President Rodrigo R. Duterte “before the 29th.”
The Executive branch, meanwhile, was also represented at the meeting by the Department of Budget and Management. “We were with the DBM earlier and we were asking for their opinion about the best time to pass the Budget and they said we need to take advantage of the good weather window (for construction),” Mr. Andaya said.
The Senate has alleged that the House realigned parts of the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Health, amounting to P79 billion and P15 billion, respectively, after the Feb. 8 ratification.
Mr. Andaya said the Senate also made P75 billion in “post-bicam realignments.”
The budget impasse has resulted in the reenactment of the budget for the first quarter of 2019, which prompted the Development Budget Coordination Committee to slash its growth forecast for 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) to 6-7% from 7-8%. The National Economic and Development Authority, meanwhile, said GDP growth will decline to 6.1-6.3% if the budget is reenacted until April and 4.9-5.1% if until August.

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