Millions of scholars are in danger of losing their scholarships if the Senate would insist on keeping the lump sum appropriations it wants to keep in the 2019 budget.
This was revealed today by House Deputy Speaker Dante Marcoleta who said that while the Senate is accusing them of making realignments in the budget after ratification, it is the Senate that should be asked where it put multi-billion projects of President Rodrigo Duterte.
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In a press conference, Marcoleta said the Senate had realigned P74 billion in the budget by removing key government programs of the Duterte administration including removing the funding allocation for the National Greening Program, TESDA scholarships, right of way projects of the DPWH and other foreign-assisted projects.
“Actually, you should ask the Senate. For example, out of the P74 billion that they realigned, they took P2.5 billion from the National Greening Program. That program has disappeared except for a particular province, and I would not tell you [which],” Marcoleta said in Filipino.
“Some P3 billion was taken from the TESDA scholarships. What will you do with the rebel returnees and the out-of-school youth and the rehabilitated drug addicts? They removed P11 billion from the DPWH for right of way acquisition. So what will happen to the Build, Build, Build program?”
If anyone realigned funds, he said, it was the Senate because it removed budget allocations of those key government programs and transferred them to other unspecified programs.
The House members merely identified and itemized the projects that had already been covered by a lump sum allocation in the bicameral-approved budget, he said.
He said this was all right as long as the aggregate numbers were not altered or modified.
He added that when the House members asked their Senate counterparts to point out an unconstitutional act, they failed to answer.
“Find a provision in the Constitution that we violated. They said nothing,” he said.
“If we itemized the projects, that’s unconstitutional, but if the Senate realigns and cuts funds, that’s okay as an institutional amendment? That’s wrong,” he said.
He said both chambers should set aside differences and comply with the President’s request to finalize the budget.
“We in the House have done our part. The Speaker already signed it. The ball is in the Senate’s court. They must decide whether they will follow the President’s request or if they will insist on a reenacted budget that would hurt the nation,” he said.
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