Lump sum is what is unconstitutional — Arroyo

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday insisted on the constitutionality of itemizing lump sum funds in the ratified 2019 national budget bill.

“We will insist on no lump sum,” Arroyo told reporters on the sidelines of The Nickel Initiative conference in Taguig City on Tuesday.

The former president and now Pampanga representative said lump sum funds “is what’s unconstitutional.”

Arroyo has already signed a copy of the 2019 budget bill, which was already submitted to the Senate.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Panfilo Lacson have since exchanged tirades with the House leadership on the constitutionality realignments or itemization that the lower chamber has made after the ratification of the 2019 budget bill for approval of President Rodrigo Duterte.

House Committee on Appropriations chair Rolando Andaya has also maintained that they only made itemization in an attempt to make the budget more transparent, and there is nothing unconstitutional about it.

“We have not withdrawn our version,” Arroyo said.

Sotto has already proposed that both houses of Congress to convene in a special session to discuss the contentious issues in the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Act.

Andaya welcomed the proposal, but he maintained that the House will not change its position of itemizing lump sum funds in the budget.

Despite the ratification of the 2019 budget bill, the government is still operating under a reenacted budget since senators refuse to approve the enrolled copy of the measure as they claim that the House’s move to itemize lump sum funds after the budget has been ratified is unconstitutional.

“If [we] don’t come to an agreement... then there’s no bill to send to the President. I don’t know if we will but I wish we would,” Arroyo said. — RSJ, GMA News