House members tend to get testy when they feel that their job as budget appropriator is being taken for granted.
Case in point: Minority Leader Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. on Monday night threatened to have the Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR) proposed 2021 budget worth P9.9 billion deferred when he failed to see BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay both in plenary and in Zoom.
Monday marked the first day of the plenary debates on House Bill (HB) No.7727, or the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The proposed national budget next year is P4.506 trillion.
Abante, Manila's 6th district congressman, demanded that the missing BIR executive "personally come" to his office and "apologize."
Abante never mentioned Dulay by name and even mistakenly referred to the agency chief as a "she" during the proceedings. But the Minority Leader's staff confirmed to Manila Bulletin that the solon was indeed referring to Dulay.
"Is the good commissioner of the BIR with us in the plenary today? Kasi hindi ko pa siya nakilala. Gusto ko po siyang makilala (I haven't met her yet. I want to meet her). Can we be able to see her beautiful face?" Abante asked House Appropriations Committee vice-chairman, Sultan Kudarat 2nd district Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr.
"I was informed a while ago that the commissioner has this immuno-compromised status," said Suansing, who at that time was defending the proposed budget of the Department of Finance (DOF). The BIR is an attached agency of the DOF.
"So she is not with us today? Well, we can always have a very good reason to absent ourselves in a very important budget deliberation in the plenary. Perhaps her good reason is valid. This is a budget deliberation in the plenary and she must be here even in the Zoom," Abante said, sounding irked.
Suansing, who never corrected Abante, said: "(The) Secretariat gave me the information that outsiders, aside from the members of the House, are not allowed to use the Zoom for this plenary budget debates."
But the Minority Leader didn't accept this excuse.
"Mr. Speaker, I demand that the Commissioner of the BIR speak to me personally. I demand that she ought to apologize to this Congress. I demand that she submit a record of her condition to this chamber or I will move for the deferment of this budget of the BIR," said Abante, who has been an active participant in House hearings despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
"At the proper time, I will call for the deferment of the budget of BIR," he said before wrapping up to give his House colleagues the opportunity to interpellate the DOF budget.
The 299-strong House of Representatives possesses the "power of the purse"--basically the authority to allocate public funds for government expenditure. House members throughout the years have always mentioned this to set them apart from senators.
The annual budget season is the time when the different agency officials troop to the Lower Chamber to ask for the final approval of their respective budget allocations, as initially set by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The House leadership has mitigated the threat of the new coronavirus by holding mixed live and virtual hearings, on top of implementing minimum health standards such as the use of face masks, face shields, and physical distancing rules.