The Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to ratify the proposed P1.8-trillion budget for next year on Tuesday to facilitate its early signing into law, a House leader said Monday.
“Both heads of delegation of the budget bicameral conference committee are confident that there will be signing tomorrow morning and the ratification in the afternoon,” Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, House appropriations panel chair, said in a text message.
Abaya met with Senator Franklin Drilon, chairperson of the Senate finance committee, to settle differences between the versions of the 2012 budget presented by each chamber of Congress.
Abaya, however, said that the bicameral conference committee has not yet determined whether or not to grant the unconditional return of allocations for unfilled posts in fiscally autonomous agencies contained in the controversial miscellaneous personnel benefit fund (MPBF).
“We’re still working on it. There will surely be a middle ground decision,” he said.
The MPBF is a special purpose fund introduced by the executive into the proposed 2012 budget, supposedly to ensure transparency in the handling of government money.
The fund impounds P23.4 billion of government allocations for vacant posts, which can only be released once the positions are filled.
The Supreme Court opposes the MPBF, which supposedly violates the fiscal autonomy of the judiciary and other constitutional offices enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.
The House agreed to restore P4.9-billion from the MPBF to fiscally autonomous agencies, provided that they will be banned from using the funds from purposes other than personnel benefits. The Senate, however, chose to return the funds without this special provision.
Both Abaya and Drilon have earlier committed to passing the 2012 budget on or before December 15. — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK
