By Ellson Quismorio and Vanne Elaine Terrazola Congress ratified Friday night the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, pav­ing the way for its signing by President Duterte. Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., Chairman of House Appropriations Committee, shows the letter sent by Budget Secreatary Benjamin Diokno citing the reason why he was not able to come to the hearing at the Nograles Hall of the House of Representatives in Quezon City, February 8 2019. (Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN) Voting 15-5, the Senate adopted and ratified the Bicameral Conference Committee report on the 2019 national budget. The House of Representatives like­wise ratified the Bicam Committee report. “I unconditionally and irrevocably submit to ratify the Bicameral Committee report , so moved,” House Majority Leader Fredenil Castro said on the floor. Deputy Speaker Mercedes Alvarez carried the motion following a simple voice vote (ayes and nayes). Opposition solon ACT-Teachers Party-List Rep. Antonio Tinio stood to object the motion but was flatly ignored by the Castro and Alvarez. The House Bicam conferees, headed by Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. (Camarines Sur, 1st District), said as early as Thursday that they were ready to approve the Bicam report on the 2019 General Appro­priations Bill (GAB) and that they were only waiting for their Senate counterparts to concur. Andaya had earlier denounced alleged insertions in the budget. The two chambers of Congress – the House and the Senate – were supposed to go on recess Wednesday but had to ex­tend their sessions for two days in order to accommodate the GAB's passage be­fore the election campaign period, which will go on full throttle next week. The Bicam meetings began last Janu­ary 22 at Manila Polo Club as the govern­ment was forced to run on a re-enacted 2018 budget for the time being. At the Upper Chamber, Senate Mi­nority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senator Panfilo Lacson, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, Sen. Bam Aquino, and Sen. Francis Pan­gilinan opposed the ratification of the final GAB, as they believe that the 2019 budget contained so-called “pork” allocations. Both Lacson and Drilon also took ex­ception and denied the claims of Andaya that each senator would get P3 billion each in government programs from the alleged budget insertions. Legarda also denied Andaya's allega­tions, saying “there is no such allocation” for senators in the 2019 budget. She also said that amendments to the proposed budget were institutional in nature and were made to fund requesting government agencies and programs. Infrastructure projects, she added, are not necessarily “pork.” Legarda, who sponsored the final GAB, reiterated that there are “no imag­ined” allocations in the 2019 budget, in­cluding that of the Department of Public Works and Highways. Bicam report approved Camp Aguinaldo was the site of the final meeting Friday wherein the con­ferees finally resolved their differences and approved the Bicam report at past 4 p.m. What became the biggest hindrance to the immediate passage of the GAB or proposed budget was the congressmen and senators’ low-key squabbling on their billions worth of supposed insertions to the budget, which some sectors have dubbed “pork barrel.” The House and Senate were reported to have made insertions to the 2019 bud­get worth P51 billion and P190 billion, respectively. In a 2013 decision, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that pork or lawmakers' discre­tionary funds were unconstitutional since they involve post-enactment intervention in the national budget. As such, lump sums like pork have to be itemized early in the budget process. ‘Most scrutinized’ budget In her speech after the ratification, House Speaker and former President Glo­ria Macapagal-Arroyo described the 2019 budget as the “most scrutinized” budget in the history of the legislature. “This year’s budget is perhaps the most closely scrutinized budget proposal in the last three decades since our present system was out in the 1987 Constitution,” Arroyo said. The 2019 budget was already conten­tious at the beginning of the House delib­erations last year due to its “cash-based” nature, which was aggressively pushed by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno. A cash-based budget forces agencies to finish projects within a one-year period. Members of the House, which get first crack at the budget thanks of its power of the purse, found this set-up too restrictive as it could negatively affect long-term programs of the government. This was in contrast to the obligation-based budget that lawmakers were used to working with. In fact, all past budgets have been obligation-based. “We re-affirmed that the one-year cash budgeting system being proposed by Secretary Diokno is no more),” An­daya said.