Senate, House contingents meet over proposed nat’l budget

(Eagle News)–The Senate and the House of Representatives contingents in charge of threshing out the issues in the proposed national budget met on Monday, March 25, with House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. initially describing the atmosphere as “positive, very friendly.”

The meeting between the House’s Andaya, San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, and the Senate’s Loren Legarda, finance committee chair; Panfilo Lacson; and Gregorio Honasan II took place after a long budget impasse that prompted the government to work on a reenacted budget.

The meeting took place in the office of Senate President Tito Sotto.

Lacson had accused the House of manipulating the proposed national budget even if it had already been ratified by Congress, but Andaya insisted these were mere itemizations to make the proposed budget easier to scrutinize.

Sotto had refused to sign a budget bill with the supposed manipulations.

President Rodrigo Duterte, whose signature is needed for the budget bill to become law, said he would not sign any “illegal document.”

According to Andaya, the budget impasse was merely due to “miscommunication.”

“First thing siguro is we have an understanding that we will have a new budget,” Andaya said.

He expressed hopes there would be a budget for 2019 before March 29.

“Hinahabol natin ‘yung good weather window for infrastructure projects,” he said.