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Friday, March 29, 2024

Budget hearing done in record time

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Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab said Sunday said the House committee on appropriations that he heads had completed in record time the hearings on the 2020 budget proposals of all government departments, agencies, and offices.

Following the termination of the hearings on the 2020 budget proposals of the different government departments, attached agencies, and offices, Ungab said the committee on appropriations was set to approve today, Monday, the committee report on House Bill 4228, principally authored by him, that seeks to appropriate funds for the operation of the government from Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020.

Ungab made his statement even as Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Sunday urged his fellow lawmakers to speak on their allotted time only and to ask relevant questions during the floor debates on the budget for a swift passage of the proposed P4.1-trillion National Expenditure Program for next year.

Romualdez, head of the House committee on rules, made the appeal as Congress on Monday starts its two-week marathon hearing to approve House Bill  4228, or the Fiscal Year 2020 General Appropriations Bill.

He said he was “banking on the professionalism and discipline of my colleagues who will not do any showing off at the expense of the proposed national budget.”

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Ungab said House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano was able to ensure the timely passage of a “pork-free and illegal insertion-free budget that will provide the Filipino people with a safe and comfortable life.”

He credited Cayetano’s idea to adjust the plenary schedule to accommodate four budget briefings daily, and that it was the Speaker’s idea to ask the committee on appropriations vice chairmen and their teams to conduct the hearings after the formal opening.

During the submission of the National Expenditure Program for 2020 to Cayetano, Romualdez, Ungab and other House leaders, Cayetano had already promised to make adjustments in their plenary schedule to give more time to scrutinize and deliberate on the proposed budget.

“Under the effective guidance and leadership of Speaker Cayetano, everyone moved in accordance with his given task,” Ungab said.

He thanked other lawmakers for heeding their call to help in the study and review of the budget proposals of the different government departments and agencies to determine the necessity of their programs and projects.

The cooperation and attendance of various heads of government agencies and departments also contributed to the early completion of the budget hearings because the public officials provided the answers to the issues raised by the House members, Ungab said.

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