BUDGET Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday that it is very unlikely that the government will operate under a reenacted budget next year amid the cut made by the House of Representatives on the proposed budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
The Budget chief told reporters that the congressmen and the senators are matured enough that they would find ways to address the situation.
"I see reenacted budget close to nil. So the probability that it will be reenacted is practically unlikely," he said.
He even expressed optimism that the proposed P3.767 trillion budget for next year will be approved by Congress towards the end of November.
The House has slashed the proposed budget of the CHR, as well as that of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Energy Regulatory Commission, to P1,000.
But some senators have vowed to restore the proposed P649-million budget for the CHR budget.
According to some lawmakers, if both Houses failed to reconcile their differences on the proposed budget, the government will operate under a reenacted budget comes 2018.
Diokno warned that under a reenacted budget, the government's "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure program and the free tuition for state higher education institutions will be "jeopardized."
Almost a third or P1 trillion of the proposed 2018 budget is allotted to the infrastructure program.
Diokno previously said that to fund the Republic Act 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the government needs around P51 billion in 2018. (SDR/SunStar Philippines)