The proposed ₱4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 is only one step away from President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval after Congress’ bicameral conference committee approved Wednesday the final version of the spending plan.
House and Senate lawmakers in the panel finalized provisions of the spending plan in their second meeting held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati, Senate Finance Committee chairperson Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara said. As predicted by Congress leaders, the final version of the budget was approved "without a hitch."
Each chamber of Congress will now vote to ratify the final version of the spending bill, after which it will be sent to Duterte for his signature.
Lawmakers originally targeted to approve the final budget by Monday, but decided to push its approval back by at least a day after senators requested for more time to review the measure.
Congress leaders earlier said that the Senate and House’s versions of the budget “are not very far from each other.”
The relative agreement between the two houses on the budget is a marked departure from last year, when the Senate and the House went head-to-head over allegations of anomalous insertions in the spending bill and the lower chamber’s move to tinker with the budget after it passed the bicam. This led to a four-month delay in the budget passage. Duterte got to sign the measure only in April this year, leaving new and continuing projects unfunded for the most part of the first semester.
Duterte's economic managers earlier warned that another reenacted budget could mean even slower growth, as seen with soft domestic activity from January-June.
Lawmakers have denied that the realignments they have made in the 2020 budget are anomalous.
The approval comes well ahead of the scheduled Congress break by December 20. To avoid a reenacted budget, Duterte must sign a new budget bill on or before December 31.
CNN Philippines Correspondent Joyce Ilas contributed to this report.
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This article first appeared on CNN Philippines.
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