Cayetano: Senate to blame if budget is delayed, re-enacted

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday said the Senate is the one to blame, and not the House of Representatives, if ever there will be a delay or a reenactment of the national budget.

Cayetano made the remark as he maintained that the House's submission of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill to the Senate will only be delayed by one day after the House's target date of third reading approval on November 16.

"Please po, let us not really come to [a] conclusion na mare-reenact ang budget, hindi po, because there is only one day difference," he 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 become because of the Senate not because of the House, because we are only taking about only one day," he added.

Cayetano was reacting to the remark of Senator Panfilo Lacson, who earlier in the day said that the 2021 national budget was as "good as reenacted" after the House abruptly suspended its session until November 16 without approving the budget bill on third reading.

"Kapag November 5 ang last day ng submission ng amendments nila, wala na, good as re-enacted na 'yung budget natin. There's no way for the Senate na matapos 'yung budget and even Malacañang na ma-approve 'yung budget before the year-end," Lacson said.

"Syempre aayusin nila, hindi naman lahat ng amendments ia-adopt nila di ba? Sabihin na natin pinakamaiksi, one week, so November 12. Magpi-print pa sila, that's another week, so November 19," he added.

But Cayetano said the House waited for the 2021 National Expenditure Program for one month. The said document was only submitted to the House in the last week of August when it was normally sent to the chamber on or only a few days after the State of the National Address in July.

"Hindi nila kasalanan ito dahil nagbago lahat yung presumption dahil February, March, April, sina-submit ng mga ahensya ang kanilang mga pangangailangan, bigla tayong tinamaan ng COVID. Wala pong nakapag-expect, wala pong makakapagbintang sa COVID. Minadali po natin dito sa House," he said.

Still, Cayetano apologized to the Senate for the one-day delay.

"This one day will also be an inconvenience but in any way that we can make it up to them lalo sa bicam, usually ang bicam mga isang linggo. But we can do it earlier," he said.

"Two weeks ang bicam last year, so we can do it now na three days or four days. Mag-overtime tayo tutal COVID. Extraordinary times requires extraordinary measures," he added. -NB/RSJ, GMA News