Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday expressed misgivings on Senator Panfilo Lacson’s proposal to open to live media coverage the bicameral meetings on the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.
He said such an idea might turn it into a “circus.” But Cayetano clarified he was not against the proposal.
“We have to be very realistic on how we can get the job done. When you open it for live coverage, what will happen is many [lawmakers] will play to the media, play to the gallery, instead of really discussing the budget,” he said told reporters Thursday.
Cayetano said the Senate had to make a consensus on Lacson’s proposal, and from then the House would decide on the matter.
Cayetano said Congress had to approve the budget on time so as to avoid any delay or avert a reenacted budget.
“When you open it to the media, it’ll be February, March, April and we still don’t have an approved budget. What good is the budget then?” he said.
The Senate and the House are expected to convene the bicameral conference committee to reconcile the disagreeing provisions in their versions of the General Appropriations Bill.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte called for higher national government spending following reports that the gross domestic product increased by 6.2 percent in the third quarter of the year.
Villafuerte, of Camarines Sur’s Second District, called on the Senate anew to work with the House of Representatives in further increasing government funding for infrastructure and other priority areas in 2020 “to serve as a greater fiscal stimulus to the economy.”
The increase in the GDP was coupled by a drastic drop in inflation amid the economic managers’ implementation of “a bold catch-up spending plan to counter the spillover impact of the 2019 budget delay.”
Villafuerte noted that a strong economic spurt powered by much higher state spending and low inflation would keep the Philippines among the world’s fastest-growing economies, “against the backdrop of weakening global growth brought about by, among others, the US-China trade war, Brexit and climate change.”
“With the domestic economy posting an impressive third-quarter rebound on the strength of decelerating inflation and Malacañang’s spending catch-up on infrastructure and human capital development, it behooves the Congress to help boost the Philippines’ growth momentum by raising the 2020 outlays for the Duterte administration’s priority programs on stimulating business activity, attracting investments and improving lives,” Villafuerte said.
“Hence, I call on our senators to work with their peers in the House of Representatives in increasing the state’s budgetary outlays for infrastructure, agriculture, education, and health in the coming year,” he added.
More funds for these four sectors will support President Rodrigo Duterte’s agenda of accelerating spending on infrastructure and human capital development, Villafuerte said.
In addition, he said, higher budgetary support for these growth drivers would complement the resolve of the two chambers to avoid a repeat of the 2019 budget delay by speeding up deliberation and approval of the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The House approved its GAA version in September before the month-long congressional break, while Senate leaders have committed to fast-track plenary deliberations on the budget bill this month in time for its approval by December.