BusinessWorld
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WEDIIESDAY, FEERUARY 5, 2OI9
HOUSE Appropriations Commit-
tee Chair Rolaado G, Anday4 Jr.
doubled down on earlier statements
tiat the P3757-trillion budget bill
for 2oI9 willbe ready by Feb. 6 and
will be up for President Rodrigo R
Duterte! signaturc by "next week"
"All talk of a reenacted budget
is baseless. The 2019 national
budget will be ready for the Presi-
denfs signature next week " Mr.
Andaya, who represents the I"t
district of camarines Sur, said in
a statement Tuesday.
"The House of Representa-
tives is sticking to the WednesdaY
target of approving the Bicameral
Conference Report on the GAA
(General Appropriations Act) for
2019. At this point, we are still on
target " he added.
His timeline follows Senate
Finance Committee Chair Loren
B. Legarda's remarks on T\resday
'evening that the bill will be final-
ized on Wednesday, but will be
ratified on Feb. 8 instead.
Thd government is currently
operating under a reenacted bud-
get, after Congress failed to pass
tfie General Appropriations Bill
by the end of 2018.
Congress is scheduled to ad-
journ on Feb. 6 until May 19 for
\ e4ore -dt 15 ,i
the election campaign period. It
will resume for three weeks on
May 2o after which the 17d Con-
gress will close on June 7 l
In the same statement, Mf.
gatlered
AJrdaya disclosed he had
proof the Department of Budget
and Management (DBM) had
P37o billion in savings in 2olz
which he alteged was the "DBMt
pork."
"Documents in our possession
showthat for 2oIZ atotal ofP370 l
billion was generated in savings.
This amount was at the full disi:
posal of Secretary (Benjamin E)
Diokno," he said.
"We also know that t}re amount
for 2ol8 savings is higher. Morer
tfian enough to sway the outcomd
of tie 2Ol9 elections, if he wants
to."
Mr Andaya on Sunday said the
House contingent to the Bicam-
eral Conference Committee de-
manded that t}le DBM report ihe
unused balances for the national
budgets of2ol7 and 2018.
At one point he threatened
that the committee report on
the budget will not be submit-
ted without the DBM report, but
later retracted his statement. -
Charmaine.d Tadalan