Philippines: House to OK PHP3.7tr 2019 budget by Oct 18

• The leadership of the House of Representatives is targeting to pass on 12 Oct 18 the proposed PHP3.757tr national budget for 2019 without cuts but with possible supplemental budgets.
• Budget hearings at the House of Representatives resumed as scheduled on 28 Aug 18 after the chamber and economic managers compromised over the one-year spending deadline attached to allocations under the 2019 National Expenditure Program.
• The compromise “hybrid” system, which retains some looser two-year spending deadlines under the old budget system, was reached in a meeting on 28 Aug 18.
• Substantial cuts in key vital projects of the Duterte administration in the departments of public works and highways, health and education will be restored, as both the executive and legislative branches agreed on a hybrid mode of budgeting system.
• “We also discussed the effects and, shall we say, bumps along the way when we fully implement the cash budget. We also agreed that there would be a transition period, two to three years transition, to let the departments get used to it,” House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on 28 Aug 18.
• Andaya also gave assurance that “there will be no re-enacted budget scenario.”
• Three weeks ago, when the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the House reached a deadlock, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, chair of the House appropriations committee, expressed fears the approval of the national budget may be derailed.
• Andaya said among those who also attended the meeting were Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Nograles and several others, and all of them agreed to propose supplemental budgets if need be.
• The ballpark figure lawmakers are talking about for a supplemental budget would reach at least PHP140bn which would help finance the plebiscite, the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the increased internal revenue allotments for local government units nationwide.

External Link: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/08/29/1846809/house-ok-p37-trillion-2019-budget-october-2018

External Link: http://www.bworldonline.com/hearings-resume-for-2019-budget-as-some-cuts-restored/