The House of Representatives has set for Oct. 12 the approval of the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 after the Executive department agreed to defer for at least two to three years the full implementation of the cash-based budgeting system.
House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said the House will pass the budget bill before Congress adjourns in October.
“We want a new budget,” Andaya told reporters as the House committee on appropriations, led by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, resumed its deliberations on the budget.
“We have agreed on a two-to-three-year transition period [for the full implementation of the cash-based budgeting system],” Andaya said.
The agreement came following a lunch meeting in Malacañang attended by Andaya, Nograles, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
The House appropriations committee suspended the budget deliberations for two weeks after lawmakers opposed the cash-based budgeting system that the Budget department had adopted.
To resolve the budget impasse, the Executive department and the House agreed to adopt a “hybrid” budgeting system that is a mix of the cash-based scheme and the current obligation-based system.
The cash-based budgeting system limits appropriations, bidding, completion of projects and payments within a single year and the first three months of the following year.
Under the present obligation-based budgeting, the government can spread out the appropriations across two years or more to allow the completion of projects.
The House and the Executive agreed to extend the implementation of projects to 18 months from 15 months that the Budget department proposed initially.
Andaya said the Budget department agreed to restore some of the budget cuts in social services, particularly in health and education and even public works.
“A part of it will be restored. We have agreed that it [the budget for social services] is insufficient,” Andaya said.
He said the funding could come either from unprogrammed funds or a supplemental budget that might be filed later on.