Still no budget for 2019

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 15 Apr 2019 by Romeo Bernardo

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The suspense continues. After much wrangling in congress that resulted in the Senate transmitting the enrolled bill with “strong reservations” to Malacanang only in late March, the proposed 2019 budget remains unsigned to date. At this point, the choices before President Rodrigo Duterte are to: (a) ratify the submitted budget in its entirety; (b) veto it in toto, forcing government to operate on the 2018 reenacted budget for the rest of the year; (c) veto some line items, a power that Philippine executives enjoy in contrast to say, US presidents; or (d) allow the budget to lapse into law.Given dire warnings about the economic consequences of (b)[1] but at the same time worried about the constitutionality of (a) following allegations of congressional “insertions,” commentators surmise that President Durterte would resort to (c) and do a line item veto. At the center of the controversy are some P75-billion worth what appears to be pork barrel funds. The Senate claims that the Lower House “inserted” projects/programs totaling that amount after the bicameral conference committee had approved the budget, something that it says is unconstitutional. The Lower House in turn claims that it merely itemized the approved lump-sum allocation in compliance with a supposed Supreme Court decision. It may be recalled that the squabble over the budget started late last year with the Lower House accusing then Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno of “inserting,” incidentally, P75-billion.To be sure, the President is piqued by all this and has threatened to veto the entire budget. A ceremonial signing of the budget today has been removed from his schedule. Although he could continue to sit on ...