Aquino asked not to use veto powers extensively on 2011 budget

To prevent any delays in the passage of the 2011 budget, Senate finance committee chairman Senator Franklin Drilon on Wednesday asked President Benigno Aquino III not to use his veto powers extensively. "One of the things that I would like to happen is, I would not want extensive veto or I would not want an extensive exercise by the President of his veto powers," Drilon told reporters on Wednesday. He explained that in the past, lack of coordination between the executive and legislative branches had caused the President to exercise the line-item veto — or partial veto — power after Congress had already agreed on the items on the budget. "It’s a futile exercise if we keep on inserting provisions and amendments which may not be consistent with the President’s policy and would just therefore veto the provision," he said. Drilon said he'd prefer it if President Aquino would consult the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) before exercising his veto powers. "We can explain the provisions that we have inserted," he said. "We are trying to reconcile the differences between our version and the House version, but also consulting the DBM as to how they feel about special provisions, about certain inclusions, certain amendments we placed," he added. Drilon and Aquino are both members of the Liberal Party (LP). On Wednesday, the Senate and House of Representatives conducted a bicameral conference to settle the differences in their versions of the budget. However, Drilon noted that they have yet to determine what items in the budget are most likely to be vetoed. "It’s still on the technical level. The technical staff has been going over the voluminous records to check exactly where the differences lie," he said. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV