The chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means on Monday said the leadership will pass the proposed national budget for 2020 on final reading before Congress goes on a break on Oct. 5.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the panel’s chairman, made the announcement ahead of the Palace’s submission anytime this month of the proposed P4.2-trillion national budget for next year.
“The House aims to pass the national budget before Oct. 5,” Salceda said at a news conference Monday after attending a small group Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting in Malacañang Monday.
According to Salceda, the LEDAC has yet to agree on a final list of priority measures, especially since the Senate is yet to come up with its own list on Aug. 27.
He also said the House leadership under the stewardship of House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez of Leyte would prioritize the passage of the measures that the President mentioned in his fourth State of the Nation Address last July 22.
At the same time, he assured that the House will pass the three tax measures that were in the top 8 of the 23 legislative priorities that the President mentioned in his SONA. These include an act Increasing and Restructuring the Excise Tax Rates on Alcohol; TRAIN 2 or the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA); and the Rationalization of Capital Income Taxation.
He added that House leaders will help the economic managers “in working for the nation in its bid for credit upgrades and higher incomes for all.”
“We are optimistic that with the reassertion of the mandate of the President in the last national and local elections, our colleagues in the House of Representatives and Senate will be working on the priority measures conscientiously, yet efficiently and see to the passage of priority measures,” Salceda said.
Salceda also revealed that he will file a bill increasing the tax on luxury automobiles.
“It is high time that Congress tax wealth in the form of fuel-guzzling luxury cars. Further, the ‘carmageddon’ in EDSA and major thoroughfares in urban areas call for policies discouraging private car use, this, allowing greater mobility for the commuting public,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said that a small LEDAC prior to the holding of the main LEDC has already been set at every last Monday of the month.
As manifested by Majority Leader Migz Zubiri during the meeting in Malacanang last Monday, Sotto said the mini LEDAC will be the forum to clear the air on proposed measures.
“So it was an organizational meeting, we cleared the air and the Majority Leader aired the concerns of the Senate,” he said.
Before they started discussions of priority measures in the mini LEDAC, Zubiri said they aired the sentiments of their colleagues on the vetoed measures.
“We said that we do not question the power and prerogative of the President to veto measures as it is his prerogative to do so under the Constitution,” he said.
“What’s surprising was that they agreed on certified measures and they said, because of these happenings last Congress, we will have frequent meetings, mini LEDAC as what the Senate President said last Monday, every last Monday of the month, but this August, since the last Monday is a holiday, so we will do it on so the 27th, the next meeting,” Zubiri said.
He said they will discuss the measures that could possibly have stumbling blocks or serious reservations of the different departments.
“So we cleared the air early on,” said the Senate leader.
Unlike the small LEDACs in the previous administration, Malacanang rarely sends a representative.
But now, Zubiri said one or two members of the Senate or the House who have concerns will be invited.
He said that was the agreement and then and that the main LEDAC will be composed of the Cabinet and the same officers of both Houses of Congress. It is scheduled once every quarter.
Meanwhile, Sotto said they also requested to have livelier PLLO participation as far as the hearings are concerned so that their feedback will already be given to the departments.
“And we can immediately be given feedbacks because as we said earlier, I told them bluntly, ‘kung sa tingin ninyo ibe-veto ng Presidente, we won’t waste our time on debating, wasting time, effort, money on a bill that will be vetoed anyway.’
