Reenacted budget to hurt economy - Palace
Malacanang rejected on Thursday a reenacted budget for this year, saying it would hurt the economy.
"A reenacted budget as a result of a budget impasse would hurt our economy," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
This was after Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier proposed the withdrawal of the Senate version of the 2019 budget as the House of Representatives budget committee showed numerous allegations of insertions.
Sotto said it could be better to proceed with a reenacted budget.
Panelo said if Congress would fail to pass the proposed P3.757 trillion budget for this year, this would translate to "lost opportunities" for higher growth.
He cited that the economic managers have estimated a reenacted budget for the full year could mean a loss of 1 to 2.3 percentage points in gross domestic product growth.
Panelo added that the administration's "Build Build Build" infrastructure projects, which are in various stages of implementation would "severely be affected."
"The ordinary Filipino would be the one greatly affected as there would be fewer openings of employment for him or her, not to mention lesser work productivity for those employed as a result of delays in the completion of badly needed transport and road network. Programs of various departments this year intended for poverty reduction, health promotion, and peace and security advancement, to mention a few, would be inevitably affected as well," Panelo said.
He said the members of Congress know of "dire consequences" of a reenacted budget.
Panelo said the Palace was thankful for the statement made by some members of the bilateral committee that it will endeavor to pass the General Appropriations Bill next week.
He reiterated that the executive branch has done its part in the budgeting process.
He urged Congress to complete the process of passing the budget bill. Celerina Monte/DMS
