A MEASURE extending the validity of the 2019 budget until next year and the proposed P4.1 trillion spending plan for 2020 are expected to be tackled in the 18th Congress when it resumes session on Monday after a month-long break.

Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez of Leyte’s 1st district said Sunday that the House of Representatives is due to approve on final reading the resolution which will extend the availability of P3.662-trillion budget for 2019 until Dec. 31, 2020.

“We aim to hit the ground running on the first day of work. Time to roll up our sleeves once again,” Mr. Romualdez said in a statement Sunday.

The House is also scheduled to approve the bill postponing the May 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. House Bill No. 4933 provides that the May 2020 election be moved to May 2023, a year after the 2022 national election.

This is intended to allow more time for incumbent Barangay and SK officials, who assumed office in May 2018, to implement their respective programs and projects. Its counterpart measure in the Senate, Senate Bill No. 1043, won final reading prior to the Oct. 4 adjournment. Its version, however, provided to delay the elections to Dec. 5, 2022.

Mr. Romualdez said the chamber is also set to continue deliberation of other economic measures during the resumption, particularly the remaining packages of the comprehensive tax reform program.

“Other economic bills that needed swift action from the House include measures dealing with the Real Property Valuation and Assessment system, amendments to the Public Service Act, (and) a measure raising the Motor Vehicle Road Users’ Tax.”

He said in accordance to earlier pronouncements of Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano, the House will aim for passage of the bills creating three new departments by year’s end. These are the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers, the Department of Water, and the Department of Disaster Resilience, all of which were mentioned in President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s fourth State of the Nation Address.

The Senate, for its part, will begin plenary sessions on the 2020 spending plan next week, in time for its targeted passage by year’s end.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Juan Edgardo M. Angara said in a text message to BusinessWorld that he plans to sponsor the budget “not this week, the following.”

A subcommittee, led by Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, on Monday is set to deliberate the budget of the Philippine National Oil Co.; while a subcommittee headed by Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, has submitted its report.

“Ang aking subcommittee, nakapag-submit na kami ng aming report sa main committee (my subcommittee has filed its report to the main committee), within one week on break,” Mr. Lacson said in a radio interview with DzBB Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri has said that aside from the budget, the chamber is also expected to deliberate on the following measures during the resumption: Increasing Excise Taxes on Alcohol Products, Heated Tobacco and Vapor Products and Creation of Malasakit Centers in all Department of Health Hospitals, Creation of a National Transportation Safety Board, and Amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

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