DBM to ask Duterte to call for special session for passage of 2019 budget

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will ask President Rodrigo Duterte to call for a special session to pass the proposed P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget to avoid the government from operating on a reenacted budget.

"What's the possibility for a special session? That's entirely possible because today they will meet at a joint session to discuss the extension of martial law and tomorrow they will adjourn," Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a forum in Manila on Wednesday.

"So there's a possibility that the President may call for a special session sometime next week to finish the budget," Diokno said.

The Budget chief said the DBM will ask Duterte to request for a special session since Congress will be on a long holiday break and will only resume session on January 14.

"We will recommend to the President a request for a special session. It could be sooner, it could be on Friday," Diokno said.

Based on the schedule of the Senate Committee on Finance, the bicameral panel will only be able to approve the proposed P3.757-trillion budget for next year only on Jan. 29, 2019.

Approving the 2019 budget next January instead of December 2018 would set the tone for a reenacted budget.

This means that the government cannot fund programs appropriated for next year as it will have to operate on the same general appropriations as 2018.

The 1987 Constitution states that “If, by the end of any fiscal year, the Congress shall have failed to pass the general appropriations bill for the ensuing fiscal year, the general appropriations law for the preceding fiscal year shall be deemed reenacted and shall remain in force and effect until the general appropriations bill is passed by the Congress.” — RSJ, GMA News