By Genalyn Kabiling
The Executive branch intends to submit the proposed 2020 national budget to Congress in the next two weeks, which is well within the 30-day constitutional deadline, a Palace official said Monday.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles
(FEDERICO CRUZ / MANILA BULLETIN)
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the budget proposal could not be submitted Monday, the day of President Duterte's fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), but the government still has time to meet the deadline.
"Not today. Maybe in two weeks," Nograles said in a text message ahead of the President's annual public address.
"The Constitution provides it will be submitted within 30 days after SONA. So we still have time," he added.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier announced it would propose a P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020. The proposed outlay will be higher by 9.1 percent than the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) of P3.7 trillion.
In the past year, the 2019 national budget was submitted shortly after the President delivered his SONA. The government operated on a reenacted budget in the early part of the year after the budget was delayed by lawmakers’ deliberations on alleged irregularities in last-minute insertions.
Malacañang has expressed hope there will be no repeat of the reenacted budget early this year that disrupted public spending.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo has urged the two houses of Congress to ensure a timely passage of the proposed 2010 national budget to sustain government services including social services and infrastructure projects.
"We have experienced the impact of a reenacted budget as a result of a budget impasse and we hope that this would not happen again," Panelo said in a recent interview with the Mania Bulletin.
"The welfare of the Filipino people is our utmost priority and therefore we call on the members of the Congress to act immediately so that government services will not be hampered," he said.