House OKs 2021 budget amid pending deliberations, speakership row

In an unexpected turn of events, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on second reading the measure providing for the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget, without finishing the scheduled deliberations at the plenary.

The development came after no less than Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano moved to terminate the period of debates, as well as the period of amendments for House Bill 7727, or the 2021 General Appropriations Bill.

"Applying Section 55 of our rules, I move to terminate the period of debates of House Bill 7727, otherwise known as the GAB," Cayetano said in a speech before the House plenary.

The House was expected to finish its plenary deliberations and approve the 2021 GAB on second reading this Friday.

In fact, Cayetano made his speech in the middle of the deliberations of the budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

A small group of lawmakers has been created to accept committee and individual amendments to the budget bill.

This is composed of Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Committee on Appropriations chair Eric Yap, and Representatives Jonathan Sy-Alvarado, Junie Cua, Henry Oaminal, Joey Salceda, Stella Quimbo, Mike Defensor, Manix Dalipe, Teodorico Haresco Jr., Elpidio Barzaga Jr., and Aileen Ermita-Buhain.

"I know many of you want to ask questions here, but many of you feel you'll ask questions here and your constituents will say buti congressman ko congresswoman ko nakapagtanong pero wala namang resulta. Subukan natin technical working group this time," Cayetano said.

"Subukan natin dahil pandemic naman. Maybe this time, instead of Congress versus the departments, it will be Congress with the departments in fighting poverty and corruption in this pandemic," he added.

Lawmakers have until November 5 to submit committee and individual amendments to the budget bill.

Following the approval of the 2021 GAB on second reading, the House session was suspended until November 16.

Cayetano, in his speech, also said that he came up with a folder containing "personal district report" and "sectoral district report" which will be distributed to each one of the lawmakers to "fill in the blanks."

"We will work on your projects during the break," he said.

"Walang lump sum dito, we will specify this. But on the agreement with Senator Lacson, dadaan ito sa inyong district engineers, sa regional directors, sa directors ng ibang agency to make sure it's not pork barrel. But I will handle this with you individually and we will have coordinators," he added.

Yap earlier said the House was aiming to approve the budget on October 14, which is also the expected turnover date of the speakership to Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco.

However, given that there will be no session on October 14, there can be no proceedings to formally transfer the highest position in the House to Velasco.—AOL, GMA News