House submitting proposed P4.5-T budget to Senate by Oct. 28 —Yap

The House of Representatives will transmit the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 to the Senate by October 28, as requested by  Senate President Vicente Sotto III, House Appropriations panel Chairman Eric Yap said Friday.

Yap made the assurance a day after Senators warned that submitting the proposed 2021 national budget beyond October 28 will result in delayed budget approval.

“Pipilitin natin kung ‘yun ang gusto ni Senate President. Gagawa kami ng paraan para mabigay sa kanila,” Yap said.

“‘Yung October 28, kung gusto ni Senate President and nasabi ni Speaker [Lord Allan Velasco], syempre 'di ko pwedeng ipahiya ang Speaker ko. It will be October 28. But, hindi siya yung hardbound copy. Kung ano ‘yung copy [na] sinubmit namin sa NPO (National Printing Office), ‘yun yung ibibigay namin [sa Senate],” Yap added.

The House is expected to approve the proposed P4.5-trillion budget for 2021 on third and final reading this Friday.

After its approval, Yap said that a small committee will be formed to accept proposed amendments from respective government agencies.

Agencies will be given until Monday for submission of proposed amendments, while these proposals will be evaluated by House members in the small committee by Tuesday and Wednesday before the proposed budget is encoded for printing.

The encoded copy, Yap said, will be submitted to the Senate on October 28 since the printing of the the voluminous budget books in NPO for the hardbound copy takes 10 days.

While Yap assured the Senate that they will work on the given timeline, he said the House cannot just defer to the Senate version of the budget.

“Ang budget, laging nanggagaling sa Lower House, tapos kami ang mag-a-adopt? We have 300 congressman na nagre-represent ng 250 districts. So each member of Congress, may district at constituents, at nakikita nila ang problema. We cannot [just adjust] to what they want us to do,” Yap said. —LBG, GMA News