House eyes approval of 2019 budget on Oct. 12

August 28, 2018

The House of Representatives aims to pass the 2019 national budget by Oct. 12 and has agreed with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the adoption of a hybrid budgeting system.

In a press briefing Tuesday, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said the agreement to adopt the hybrid budgeting system was agreed upon in a meeting of the House and executive officials. Present in the meeting were Andaya, Committee on Appropriations Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles, DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

Andaya said with the resumption of the budget hearings, the House hopes to pass the 2019 budget by October 12.

Andaya said the meeting with Diokno allowed the House and the DBM to explain the merits of both the hybrid budgeting system and the cash-based budgeting system.

“The meeting was more of getting all parties on the same page, clarifying that there will be no reenacted budget, that we want a new budget. Both sides explained ‘yung merits why we want a hybrid type of a budget, and Secretary Diokno also gave the merits of a purely cash-based budget. But in the end, we agreed to help each other. He agreed that the life of the budget will be extended to one-year-and-a-half. So in that sense, it's hybrid,” explained Andaya.

As he previously explained, a hybrid budgeting system will be the combination of a cash-based system and an obligation-based system.

He previously said  the budget "should be demand-based, not supply-based. If we now curtail ‘yung mga kailangang pagkagastusan, magiging supply-based. Kung ano ‘yung demand, ‘yun ‘yung ibigay natin.”

He disclosed that both parties also agreed to restore the budget cuts enforced in some agencies. With regard to this, he said that Nograles kept  referring to the Department of Health, the Department of Education, and the Department of Public Works and Highways.

When asked where the budget will be charged from, Andaya said “We’re looking at the options. Maybe we can source some from the unprogrammed funds; maybe we can source some from a supplemental budget. We’re doing the number crunching. We’re also looking at the revenue side," said Andaya.

He clarified that, although the supplemental budget is one of the options, it is  yet to be finalized by the DBM.

Andaya said there will definitely be a transition period for the hybrid system.

“We also discussed the effects and the bumps along the way when we fully implement the [hybrid] budgeting. We also agreed that there will be a transition period. It cannot be a one-year transition period, (it's) more of a two to three-year transition period,  just to have all the departments get used to the new system,” he said. DMS