The Senate Committee on Finance is expected to wrap up this week its hearings on the proposed budgets of government agencies for 2021.

Sen. Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara said Sunday that 90 to 91 percent of the proposed allocations under the P4.5-trillion government expenditure plan for next year have been discussed in their committee and subcommittee hearings.

"At ang naiiwan na lang sa mga malalaking ahensya is DENR, DoT, Comelec, Department of Housing at I think naka-schedule na sila ngayong darating na linggo (What's remaining of the major agencies are the budgets of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Tourism, Commission on Elections, and Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and I think they are scheduled for this coming week)," Angara, chairman of the committee, said in an interview over radio DZRH.

The Senate committee hearings, which started last Sept. 9, were on the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the Executive department to Congress. Under the Constitution, senators must wait for the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved by the House of Representatives before they can tackle the budget measure in plenary.

Angara said they expect copies of the GAB to be sent to the Senate on Oct.  28 as committed by the House leadership. The Senate had called for the early transmittal of the measure to give its members time to study the House's amendments to the NEP.

"Historically ay talagang may amendments na natatanggap ang Senado diyan (the budget bills received by the Senate have always contained amendments from the House)," Angara said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan cautioned their counterparts against making huge revisions to the GAB after its third reading approval last Friday.

House Committee on Appropriations chair ACT-CIS Rep.  Eric Yap told radio DZBB Sunday that they would have to make adjustments in the allocations based on the requests of agencies as identified in the errata that they have submitted.

Yap said that under the rules of Congress, bills certified as urgent by the President must immediately be passed on second and third reading after the period of debates. He said they had no opportunity to go over the proposed amendments due to the urgency of the measure as the President's certification "changed" the usual legislative process.

But senators believed otherwise.

"They are arguing that, 'yan ang posisyon nila (that is their position). Pero sa atin sa (But for us in the) Senate, and it was manifested on the floor last week (you cannot anymore amend), once it is approved in third and final reading. Kung material ang errata, eh teka muna, hindi na ito consistent with the constitutional processes of legislation (If the errata is material to the budget – wait a minute –

that's not anymore consistent with the constitutional processes of legislation)," Pangilinan told DZBB.

"'If the amounts are too big, that is, if you ask me, errata is not the proper remedy. And therefore dapat sa bicam na 'yan talakayin (it should be discussed in the bicam)."

Pangilinan said there could be a repeat of the 2019 impasse between the Senate and the House should congressmen insert questionable amendments after their approval.

"Na-veto dahil nga mag bilyon-bilyong kwestyonableng insertion (The President vetoed the billions of questionable insertions in the budget). So it can happen again, the Senate is standing firm na after the third reading (approval), di na pwedeng i-correct yan (you can no longer correct that)," he said.