HOUSE Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, said any delay in the approval of the 2021 budget bill would be the fault of the Senate, not the House of Representatives.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III was quick to retort in a text message to reporters on Thursday, October 8.
"The nerve! Passing the blame, it's unacceptable!" he said.
"Do not be misled. The House of Representatives has delayed the budget for a whole month. No one can ever blame the Senate for this delay. Never!" he added.
Sotto said the House should have approved the budget bill before their scheduled break on October 17.
Based on the budgetting process, the Senate can only tackle the budget bill in plenary after it is approved by the House. After the bill is approved by both chambers, a bicameral conference committee would be convened to reconcile the two versions of the budget before a final bill is transmitted to the President for approval and enactment into law.
The Senate committee on finance may conduct hearings on the proposed budget while the House is deliberating on it. But Sotto said their hearings are based on the proposed National Expenditures Program (NEP) submitted by the Department of Budget and Management.
He was certain that the measure that would be approved by the House would be different from the NEP.
In a radio interview, Sotto said their original target for the House to transmit the bill to the Senate was October 1. But it would have been fine if the House could transmit the approved measure on October 14 or 15.
He said the House could have approved the bill on third reading on the same day as the second reading approval. An option would have been to approve the bill on third reading three days after approving it on second reading, he added.
In a Facebook live video Wednesday evening, Cayetano said there will be a delay of only one day in the transmittal of the budget bill from the House to the Senate.
"Please po, let us not really come to conclusion na mare-reenact ang budget. Hindi po, because there is only one day difference," Cayetano said in a Facebook Live video.
"One day lang po ang diperensya and I hope that maging malinaw ito because kung magkakaroon po ng delay o reenactment, it will be because of the Senate ,not because of the House, because we are only taking about only one day," he added.
Cayetano issued the statement after Senator Panfilo Lacson and other lawmakers warned that it would be impossible to pass the budget bill before the year ends and the government is likely to operate on a reenacted budget in 2021.
The House passed the budget bill, or House Bill No. 7727, on second reading on Tuesday, October 6, after Cayetano moved to terminate plenary debates.
It then suspended session, more than a week ahead of its scheduled recess from October 17 to November 16, in a move by Cayetano to retain the speakership.
During its break, a committee led by Majority Leader Martin Romualdez will accept until November 5 and deliberate on proposed committee and individual amendments to the bill.
The committee is also authorized to terminate the period of amendments. The House will resume session on November 16, 2020.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that when a bill is approved on second reading, the third reading will just be ceremonial.
"So there is always a case that there is a time lag between the approval on the second reading of the budget and the third reading, because you're talking of three volumes of very large books to be printed by the House," Roque said.
"As you know, when a proposed law is passed on second reading, the third reading is ceremonial, plus there really is a need for time because they would have to reprint or print the final version of the proposed law before they could approve it on third and final reading," he added.
The early suspension of the House plenary session has made it impossible for Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco and his allies to unseat Cayetano by October 14 in line with their July 2019 term-sharing agreement. (With Jove Moya/VoxPop Philippines)