Duterte wants 2021 budget to be passed on time amid squabbles in House

President Rodrigo Duterte wants lawmakers to pass the proposed P4.506-trillion budget before the end of year amid squabbles among members of the House of Representatives over infrastructure funds allocated for legislative districts, Malacañang said Monday.

“Let’s just say because the 2021 budget is also our biggest stimulus package, non-negotiable po kay Presidente, kinakailangan maipasa po ‘yang budget on time,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised briefing.

The proposed 2021 national budget is expected to fund programs and projects to help the country recover quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Negros Oriental Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr. questioned the supposedly huge infrastructure funds for Taguig City and Camarines Sur, the legislative districts of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte.

The allocations reportedly amounted to P8 billion for Taguig and P11.8 billion for Camarines Sur.

Villafuerte dismissed these claims as a "sinister ploy" by supporters of Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco to derail the House's plan to finish the budget deliberations by the end of the month.

The President's son, Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte, meanwhile confirmed on Sunday that he had sent House appropriations committee chairperson Eric Yap a message that he would ask the Mindanao bloc to move to declare the positions of House Speaker and Deputy Speakers vacant.

The Davao City lawmaker said he made the statement out of his dismay upon learning the concerns of his colleagues over their districts' budget allocations, but he insisted that he did not want to get involved in the squabbles.

Both Cayetano and Velasco have a standing term-sharing agreement in which the former would hold the speakership for 15 months from July 2019 and the latter would take over to finish the next 21 months.

Cayetano will reach the 15th month of his term in October.

Roque said the President leaves it to the discretion of the House members to decide on the leadership issue.

The government had operated on a reenacted budget in the early months of 2019 after the Congress failed to pass this year's budget before 2018 ended following lawmakers’ disagreements over alleged insertions. — BM, GMA News