BAKIT MERON PA RIN DAP KAHIT NA UNCONSTITUTIONAL NA! PATIGASAN NA LANG BA NG MUKHA BASTA ME DAP! TUWID NA DAAN PALA! House seen to OK budget on Wednesday despite solon’s threat of going to SC The chair of the House appropriations committee is determined to have the P2.6-trillion national budget passed by Wednesday despite a progressive lawmaker’s threat to go to the Supreme Court if House leaders block the discussion of the errata inserted in the general appropriations bill (GAB). Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab said Sunday the proposed changes have been discussed by the small committee created during the plenary debates on the 2015 budget last month. “The amendments, such as the itemization of various projects in the GPBP (Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Program) budget and realignments were fully dealt with and scrutinized not only during the committee [hearings], but also during the plenary deliberations,” he said in a text message. The House is expected to approve the budget on third and final reading this week before it goes on recess. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the national expenditure program will be passed as scheduled. However, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares has questioned the House leadership’s haste in approving the budget, and demanded the proposed changes be discussed again at the plenary. “How can we pass this budget when the errata that were submitted have not been shown to all of us lawmakers, let alone deliberated by Congress? If they insist on this then we have no choice but to go to the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement. Government agencies led by the Department of Budget and Management submitted their proposed amendments to the budget after it was approved on September 26. DBM’s errata is around 100 pages thick. According to Ungab, some of the proposed amendments submitted by the executive branch were budget realignments. These changes, he said, were done in response to legislators’ comments during the budget hearings. “Most of the realignments are also offshoots of the questions raised during the plenary and committee budget deliberations,” he said. Trying to pull a ‘fast one’ Colmenares said his camp has received reports that the errata submitted by government agencies are not mere typographical or numerical corrections, like what Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said, but “substantive” changes meant to legalize the practice of utilizing savings under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Portions of the Aquino administration’s controversial economic stimulus initiative had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. “Insiders are also saying that department budgets were bloated without even considering where the funds will come from,” Colmenares said. “It seems that the Aquino administration is again trying to pull a fast one not only to legalize DAP but to have a huge election budget.” Ungab maintained the small committee deliberated on the proposed amendments thoroughly to ensure their adoption will be in accordance with laws, rules and the prevailing Supreme Court jurisprudence. Among the changes that have been adopted by the small panel are the inclusion of a special provision in the DFA budget expanding the coverage of legal assistance funds to include all migrant workers in distress, whether or not they are documented; and a provision providing for a prescribed format on the compliance report with the Commission on Audit’s findings and recommendations. Other proposed amendments to the 2015 government spending program include provisions for the “Go Negosyo” program of the Department of Trade and Industry and allocations for recall election, absentee voting and voters registration. — BM, GMA News By XIANNE ARCANGEL, GMA NewsOctober 26, 2014
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:17:21 +0000
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