House eyes ‘zero presidential veto’ of bills, approval of 2020 budget
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 12:39:48 +0000
THE House of Representatives is eyeing a “zero presidential veto” for all bills to be approved by the Senate and House of Representatives by working closely with the Duterte Cabinet, its leaders said on Tuesday.
“We have three mechanisms: first is that we should hold a monthly small group LEDAC aside from the quarterly LEDAC. Two, a more active Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO)…as per Senate President Vicente Sorto 3rd, he said that the legislative liaison should be able to attend committee hearings. Third, Sen. [Christopher] Bong Go has a direct line to the president,” Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters in a mix of English and Filipino, a day after the House contingent attended the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) with Senate leaders and executive officials.
Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said that this was an effort by lawmakers to ensure “better linkages, synergy and coordination to fast-track, facilitate and harmonize measures,“ especially the ones prioritized by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The House is also eyeing the approval of the 2020 budget by October before going on a congressional break.
“So we will start out with the Development and Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) with a hearing convening the complete economic team. Once the committee on appropriations is satisfied, we will have simultaneous hearings,” Cayetano said.
Ways and means committee chairman Joey Salceda told reporters on Monday that the House would receive the budget proposal on August 16 and start committee hearings until its final approval on October 5.
The budget will likely be under a cash-based budgeting plan, similar to this year’s expenditure system.
Duterte on Monday night approved the P4.1 trillion budget proposal for 2020. GLEE JALEA