Congress is determined to pass the 2019 national budget since a “reenacted budget is bad policy as it fails to reflect changes in needs of our people and does not respond to our economic imperatives”.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said “foremost in our mind is that a reenacted budget will endanger the increase in salaries of military and civilian workers, the 2019 elections, hosting of the Southeast Asian Games, the expansion of college scholarships to private schools, and deprive us of safety nets against inflation.”
Fears were aired earlier by some sectors that the Duterte administration will end up with a reenacted budget due to snags and delays in the deliberation in the Lower House on the proposed cash-based P 3.757 trillion 2019 budget.
Salceda, a respected economist and the House focal person on economic and fiscal policy concerns under the Arroyo speakership, said “our people, not Congress, will be the biggest losers in a reenacted budget” under which government agencies will simply operate on the basis of the previous year’s budget.
A reenacted budget sends a wrong signal to investors about the ability of the Philippines to maintain the reform momentum, said Salceda, who also singled out the “military and uniformed personnel, among other sectors, who will lose much in terms of benefits, amounting to P158 billion in 2019.”
He said a re-enacted 2018 budget “cannot authorize the P84 billion in salary increases of Military and Uniformed Personnel as provided by House-originated Joint Resolution No. 1.”
“Moreover, the 2018 budget does not provide an item for the Pension Indexation of MUP which would amount to P40 billion and another P33.8 billion for arrears in the indexation (although lodged in the Unprogrammed Funds which may be unlocked by new revenues),” he added.
