Budget watchdog Social Watch Philippines on Tuesday assured the House of Representatives it will play an active role in the current congressional hearings for the proposed P4.56 trillion General Appropriations bill for 2021.

In a letter to the leadership of the Lower House, SWP Co-convenor Rene Raya thanked Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano for urging public participation in the budget process.

The SWP has been examining government’s budget proposals for many years now but it is only now that an open invitation was given by the leadership of the chamber.

Raya said the SWP is willing to contribute its inputs and recommendations.

He recalled that Cayetano’s congressional office welcomed SWP’s intervention in 2006 and provided space for open discussion and analysis of the proposed national government budget among his colleagues in the Minority Bloc.

“That simple act of being open to citizens input back then provided inspiration for us to plod along and continue the work,” he said.

Before being appointed to the Cabinet, Education Secretary Leonor Briones led the SWP in examining the national budget. She was mainly credited for exposing pork barrel allocations and other highly questionable budget expenditure items.

Raya said he and his fellow members are again presenting SWP to Cayetano “this time with you not as a member of the Minority but as Speaker of the House and thanking you for your picking up the ball and committing to promote people’s direct participation in the budget process especially at this time.”

He said SWP has submitted its Alternative Budget Initiative (SWP-ABI) proposals for the fiscal year 2021 to Congress but asked that the group be given access to the 2021 GAB budget documents and submission by the Executive Department.

He also requested that SWP be allowed to join in the Zoom meeting of the virtual budget deliberations of the House Committee on Appropriations of key agency budgets so that it could formally present and submit its position papers and alternative budget proposals.