Press Release
November 22, 2009

PIMENTEL FEARS ANOTHER REENACTED BUDGET NEXT YEAR

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. today expressed apprehension that the government may be forced anew to run on a reenacted budget next year due to the delay in Congress deliberations on the Pl.5 trillion general appropriations act for fiscal year 2010.

Pimentel said Congress is unlikely to approve the final version of the new budget before Congress goes into Christmas recess by Dec. 18, the consequence of which is the automatic reenactment of the current year budget.

"A reenacted budget should be avoided by all means because it gives the President too much discretion in the disbursement of public funds while undermining the power of Congress over the purse," he said.

"When the old budget is reenacted, funds even for programs and projects already implemented in the previous year are reallocated to be released and spent by the Chief Executive as it if were his or her pork barrel. Ultimately, this distorts the budgetary process."

Pimentel said there is urgency in approving the budget bill on time because it becomes increasingly difficult for the Senate and House of Representatives to muster a quorum at this awkward period of time when reelectionist senators and congressmen are preoccupied with their campaign sorties, whether in Metro Manila or the provinces.

He decried that the Senate has not yet started floor debates on the 2010 budget although based on the legislative calendar, the appropriations measure should have been taken up in plenary session by the third week of November.

Worse, the minority leader said Congress will go on a one-week break from Nov. 23 to Dec. 1. He said he was upset when he learned a few days ago about the recess, which the House of Representatives had requested supposedly to allow the congressmen to go to the provinces to file their certificate of candidacy.

"That may be a good excuse for reelectionist congressmen to go to the provinces. But the session should not be suspended at the expense of the budgetary process," Pimentel said.

By tradition, he said Congress does not go on recess after the November 2 All Souls Day until it goes on a Christmas break by mid-December precisely to give lawmakers more time to discuss and approve the national budget.

With the loss of two weeks of session, Pimentel said the Senate is forced to work on the budget under extreme time constraints.

The minority leader said this also means that there will be no more time allowance for the convening of a bicameral conference committee to reconcile the conflicting provisions of the Senate and House versions of the appropriations measure.

"I and my colleagues at the Senate will not have sufficient time to scrutinize the GAA, especially the huge lump sum appropriations that will be put at the President and the heads of executive departments," Pimentel said.

Pimentel stressed that it is important for Congress to thoroughly examine all budget items and put up the necessary safeguards against misuse and illegal diversion of funds especially in view of the May, 2010 presidential, congressional and local elections when the temptation to public funds for the candidates of the administration is strong.

"We are facing an elections. We should see it that budgetary allocations, as approved by Congress, go to where these are intended. And if there are vague provisions on the use lump sum appropriations, we should have them revised to ensure they are utilized for the intended purposes," he said.

Pimentel said the Senate, at the suggestion of Sen. Edgardo Angara, will hold sessions from morning till evening to expedite approval of the new budget.

"The only problem with that arrangement is that it is too physically and mentally taxing for the senators. Not all of us may have the stamina to work for long hours," he said.

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