Tuesday, 19 March 2019

Daily Tribune

'Clash now
among
House leadr
., - By ltllado J, Iuallari Committee chairman
and Hananecl Bordey Bolando Andaya Jr.
said nothing has
Leaders' of been withdram.
the -House of T]I.q- Housej
RepiesentativeS recaUeil the brdg'el"
can't seem to agTee measure it submitted
' on whether or nbt the to the Senate in u
chamber has recalldd an effort to break
the Jneasure that it uthe impass e
sub mitte d io the fum to pagc 2
Senate as San Juan
Bep. Ronnie Zamora,
. who was designated
as emissary to the
Senate, said it was SPEAKERGIoTia l\,4acapagal-Arroyo says she will nol
retrieved, but House allow dlly Presidenl Rodrigo Duterteto sign an illegal
Appropriations document, RoY P€LovELLo

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 Clash now among House leaders
Zamora maintained that the House withdrew the document but not to give in
to the Senate but more as a sign of good faith
House withdrew the document of the Bicameral Conference
SAN Juan Rep, Ronnie zamora
said eflorts have started to end the
pernicious budget deadlock.
fuom page 1
between the two chambers and
could pave the way for the
passage of the longdelaYed 2019
national budget,' Zamora said.
Andaya, however, said the
2019 General Appropriations Bill
(GAB) transmitted for Senate
President Vicente Sotto III's
signature has remained.
Andaya reiterated the House
cannot recall their Yersion of
the budget as it needed plenary
approval and a session to do that.
"The 2019 GAB was approved
in plenary at the House. The
ratification of the bicameral
conference repoft on the national
budget was also made in PlenarY.
Recall ofthe 2019 GAB must also
be done in plenary session with
m4jority members of the House
in approval," he explained.
Hopefirlly, we could have
the budget by the end of
seeond querter. I don't
know how that will come.
"No congressman has the
authority, without plenary
approval, to order the recall
of the enrolled form of anY
bill already transmitted to the
Senate,' he added.
'I still have to be bdefed on
what they had talked about. As
chairman of the ApproPriations
Committee, my task is to steer
the approval of the 2019 General
Appropriations Bill in the House
of Representatives," Andaya said
in a statement.
Zamora maintained that the
but not to give in to the Senate
but more as a nsign of good faitir-
to moYe forward regalding the
budget.
'Basically, they wanted a
sign of good faith in order to
continue discussing,' the San
Juan congressman said.
"We are just getting back the
documents we have submitted,"
he added.
ult is not the congressmen and
senators that suffer (from the
impasse), it
is the economy,' he
stressed. uThe projection given
to us is wordsome, the economY
could drop to 4 percent GDP
(gross domestic product) That
would be the lowest perhaps in
20 years.'
Za.nora infonns Lacson
Sen. Panfilo Lacson confirmed
receiving a call from Zamora on
Sunday, informing him of the
Ilouse decision to get back the
budget measure submitted to
the Senate.
It is not the con8lressmen
and senators that suffer
(from the impasse), it is
the economy.
"Yesterday, he (Zamo ra)
gave me a calt and he said that
the House of Representatives
leadership has the approval to
recall," he said.
'It bears watrching if they will
really withdraw their version of
the enrolled bill,' he added.
Lacson, who has lambasted the
Ilouse for allegedly manipulating
the ratified version of the P3.?67
trillion proposed 2019 national
budget, welcomed the House
decision as a 'move forward "
"tYom there (recall), we will
move forward," he stressed.
Senate Minority Le ade r make her ally, Mr. Duterte, sign.
lYanklin Drilon express€d hopes
that the 2019 budget would be
passed as soon as possible.
"Hopefully, we could have
the budget by the end of second
qua.rter I don't know how that will
come,' said Drilon, who earlier
proposed for the reconvening
'i\ Tl4olt\T ya\+€"
Committee immediately after
the House recalls the submitted
measure.
Palace in anticipation
Malacafrang said it welcomes
a positive development that will
"hopefully end' the muchdelaYed
passage of the 2019 national
budget.
The projection given to us
is worrisome.
Presidential sPoke sm an
Salvador Panelo said the Palace
will now await the transmittal of
the enrolled bill to the 0ffice of
the President.
"We welcome that they have
finally settled their differences,
so we hope that they would be
submitting the enrolled bill and
for the President to go over it
and sign it if it conforms Yiith the
Constitution," Panelo said.
'Members of the House have
finally realized that whatever
conflicts they have with the
Senate should be set aside
for the general welfare," he
continued,
the official said thai with things
now moving forward, feaxs about
the economy tiking a nosedive
and the Duterte administration's
big+icket projects being halted may
now be put to rest.
"This means we would be
.moving forward to progress,' '
expressed Panelo,
No illegal move
Sleaker Gloria }lacap
on Monday maintained that the
Ilouse of Representatftrs did nothing
illegal under ihe stillpending nationa.l
budget.
In a statement, ArroYo also
stressed the House would never
an''thing uneonstitutional.
"What we ean say is that the
process that we followed was
constitutional. .We would never
put the President in a Position of
signing ar unconstitutional bill,"
Anoy0 said. l(ristina lllaralit and
Elner Il. Man[el
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