THE House of Representatives has deferred to Tuesday, September 18, the plenary deliberations on the 2019 budget after a shouting match erupted among lawmakers belonging to the majority on Monday, September 17.
The budget deliberations were supposed to start on Monday at 10 a.m. but the session was moved to 2 p.m. after the appropriations committee conducted an executive meeting upon the order of the House leadership, according to panel chair Karlo Nograles.
Stlll, the deliberations did not start at 2 p.m. as announced, instead the House postponed the plenary discussion to tomorrow morning.
Accrording to Nograles, the House leadaership in the executive meeting asked him to approve another committee report.
“They wanted me to approve another committee report, which did not happen,” said Nograles, who refused to elaborate about the report.
“Whatever the agenda was this morning did not gain the support. Whatever the agenda was, was not approved and so there is nothing else to discuss except the committee report that was already previously approved by the committee on appropriations and the rules and is now sitting on the desks of all congressmen on plenary,” Nograles added.
According to sources, the leadership wanted Nograles to remove the P55-billion insertion in the 2019 budget that would allegedly benefit some lawmakers’ districts and the pet projects of former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
Nograles refused to confirm this and maintained that what he is going to defend in the plenary is the budget submitted by the President to the Congress.
Appropriations committee vice chairman Luis Raymund Villafuerte, who was present during the meeting, said the appropriations committee supports the budget reform program of the President.
“We’re in favor of the budget reform of the President. Against kami sa pork lump sum na walang malinaw na pagtutuunan so yun ang in-oppose ko (We are against the pork lump sum with no specific projects),” said Villafuerte.
Shouting match
Villafuerte and Nograles had a shouting match with House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya during the executive hearing earlier in the day, Villafuerte confirmed.
“Sinigawan niya ‘ko, minura niya ‘ko and naghamon siya ng away. On record yan, nakita naman ng lahat ng congressmen,” Villafuerte told the media.
(He screamed at me. He cursed me and challenged me to a fight. That was on record. All the congressmen witnessed it).
“I was making a point on the mic and sabi niya ‘wag raw ako magsalita sabi ko, I’m a vice chair, I have a right and he was just bullying me, bullying Karlo Nograles, saying all these things — marami pa siyang mga sinabi na below the belt tapos hinamon niya ‘ko ng suntukan,” he further said.
(I was making a point on the microphone and he told me to stop speaking. I said I am a vice chair and I have the right and he was just bullying me and Karlo Nograles. He said a lot of things that were below the belt. Then he challenged me to a fistfight.)
Villafuerte believes that Andaya’s actions were motivated by local politics. Both lawmakers are representatives of Camarines Sur.
“He’s running against my son (Camarines Sur Governor Miguel Luis Villafuerte), siguro alam niyang hindi siya mananalo but my point is dapat ‘wag natin dalihin ang local politics sa congress. Kung may local fight, dapat sa local lang. Ito we’re in congress, we should all be responsible people dapat di ka nanghahamon, nagmumura, nanglalait,” Villafuerte said.
(He probably knows he cannot win, but my point is we should not bring local politics to Congress. Local conflicts should remain local. In Congress, we should all be responsible people. We should not go cursing and challenging people to a fight.)
Denial
Andaya has belied all the allegations of Villafuerte. Interviewed by the media, he said he’d rather call it a “spirited debate” rather than a shouting match.
“Yung nangyari kanina usapang lalaki lang yun. Di naman ako kiss and tell, wala naman pinapakitang medico-legal. Ano lang yun — we are a deliberative body, once in a while we have a spirited or emphatic point to raise and that’s what happened. Wala kaming tinatakot, binully, lalo na the speaker (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) was present the whole time,” Andaya said.
(What happened was just a discussion among men. I am not a kiss a tell. There was no medico-legal report...Nobody was threatened or bullied, especially since the Speaker was present the whole time.)
Andaya also stressed that the debate has nothing to do with local politics “parang malayo masyado yung rason, I think (that reason is too far off, I think)."
"We’re talking about the budget. It has nothing to do with local politics,” he added.
Contrary to the claim of Nograles and Villafuerte, Andaya said it was the committee on appropriations which called for the meeting and not the House leadership.
“Even kami was surprised. That was an unsanctioned meeting — wala hong nagpatawag nun. It was not a regular meeting of the appropriations committee. Be that as it may, the Speaker saw it fit to attend the proceedings,” said Andaya.
No report
Andaya also denied that the leadership is asking Nograles to approve another committee report.
“I cannot prepare a committee report for him. I’m not the chairman of the committee on appropriations. I can only suggest things to him. If he does not like it being the chairman, pwede namang pag-usapan namin (we can talk about it),” he said.
But Andaya said the “spirited debate” between him and the other lawmakers was triggered by allegations that the House leadership is trying to slash the P3.757-trillion budget proposed by the Department of Budget and Management.
“We seem to have an issue na binabawasan yung budget ng presidente. We were explaining to them na walang bawas na ginagawa. We are merely trying to at the very least listen to the concerns of each members. Wag naman basta-basta papasahin lang natin,” said Andaya.
Andaya clarified that at this point the budget proposed by the executive in terms of aggregate amount is intact and “the speaker has no intentions to reduce that budget as presented.”
“Madami kasi insinuations na babawasan daw ang budget. Ang nais lang natin gawin ay ialign lang po sa polisiya ng ating pangulo,” he said.
Andaya explained that the contentions of the House leadership stemmed from the complaints of at least 50 lawmakers that there were projects for their districts in the 2018 budget that they are not aware of. Andaya refused to elaborate and said the House leadership still has to look into these reports.
Contradicting Nograles, Andaya also said the committee on rules, which he chairs, did not endorse the appropriations panel’s committee report on the General Appropriations Bill. (SunStar Philippines)