Duterte vetoes some provisions of 2021 GAA, but not congressional insertions – Palace

December 29, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte has vetoed some provisions in the General Appropriations Act of 2021, which he deemed unconstitutional, but retained some projects inserted by Congress.

In a televised press briefing on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte directly vetoed the provision, which has something to do with the use of income by some departments and agencies.

"As a general rule, all income of agencies shall accrue to the general fund of the national government unless otherwise authorized by a separate substantive law. This means, all income of the agencies should enter the National Treasury and should be spent in accordance with the national budget," he said.

"So, the provision of the budget bill which states that the agencies can spend their income, that was subjected to veto," Roque said.

Duterte signed into law the P4.5 trillion budget for 2021 on Monday in Malacanang.

He said Duterte also wants strict enforcement of cash budgeting system and to ensure that the budget could be used properly and prevent duplication of funding like in infrastructure-related expenses, financial assistance to local government units, rice subsidy, and use of disaster funds.

Roque said in the veto message, Duterte wants that new projects that were not included in the National Expenditure Plan and did not pass through the process of discussion at the Regional Development Council "shall be subject to the national government’s cash programming, the observance of prudent and responsible fiscal management applicable rules and regulations during budget execution and approval by the President based on the program priorities of government."

"The DBM (Department of Budget and Management) shall inform the agencies of such budgetary items and require the submission of the revised agency performance targets among other supporting documents as may be applicable," he said, quoting Duterte.

"This is important because there are projects that were not included in the proposal of the executive to Congress," he said.

Duterte did not veto the projects inserted by Congress in the budget.

"These are the projects that were inserted by Congress itself, these were not vetoed. But he only said that these should be in accordance with the government cash programming and other provisions of the law," he said.

"The implementation of these projects are still subject to the approval of the President based on program priorities of the government," he added.  Celerina Monte/DMS