Villafuerte to Senate: Be open-minded in adopting House version of 2021 budget bill

The Senate should also be open-minded to adopt the version of the House of Representatives of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Bill if it wants an early passage of next year's budget.

Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte made the remark on Thursday in response to the suggestion of Senate President Vicente Sotto III for the House to adopt the Senate's version of the budget bill to fast-track the bicameral conference deliberations on the said measure.

"We also request them, if they want early passage, for them to adopt our version," Villafuerte told reporters in an interview.

According to Villafuerte, the House will consider adopting the Senate's version if it is in line with the thrust of the members of the lower chamber.

"In the first place, we will consider that [suggestion] but where is their version? If it's in line with the thrust of the members of Congress, why not?" he said.

"But they should also be open-minded to adopt also our version if it deemed fit that it is a better version," he added.

Sotto admitted that the lawmakers are looking at a re-enacted budget as the bill will realistically be passed by Congress in the first or second week of January because of the very tight schedule.

"We're really staring at the possibility of a re-enacted budget. Isang buwan yung delay sa ine-expect namin. I don't know how but sabi nila sa November 17 daw ita-transmit sa amin, eh kapag inapprove mo in third reading, may printing pa 'yun eh... Ang daming kopya niyan, ang kapal niyan," he said.

But Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano himself assured the public that the national budget will not be reenacted, as there will only be a one-day delay in the House's submission of the 2021 GAB to the Senate.

"Please po, let us not really come to conclusion na mare-reenact ang budget, hindi po, because there is only one day difference," Cayetano said in a Facebook Live video on Wednesday.

"One day lang po ang diperensya and I hope that maging malinaw ito because kung magkakaroon po ng delay o reenactment, it will be because of the Senate not because of the House, because we are only taking about only one day," he added.

But Sotto and Senator Panfilo Lacson estimated that the abrupt suspension "effectively" took one month from senators.

If the budget would be submitted to the upper chamber before the scheduled break starting October 17, the senators said they would have enough time to study the House version during recess and prepare the committee report.

In that way, senators will be able to take it up for plenary debates immediately when session resumes on November 16.

Cayetano earlier said that the House will approve the 2021 GAB on third reading on November 16, the same day that the chamber goes back in session after a month-long break.

If this will happen, Sotto said there will only be around 20 working days left for senators to interpellate, amend, and conduct the bicameral conference committee meeting with their counterparts because Congress will again adjourn its session on December 19.

The House on Tuesday suspended its session until November 16 after it approved the 2021 GAB on second reading even without finishing the scheduled deliberations of the budget of government agencies in the plenary.—AOL, GMA News