Lack of quorum delays start of House budget deliberations

Plenary debates on the proposed 2012 national budget were delayed Tuesday after majority of congressmen failed to show up for the morning session. The session, which started at 10 a.m., was suspended for more than an hour to wait for House members to arrive to be able to reach a quorum. The session only resumed shortly before 11:30 a.m., when House appropriations panel chairperson Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya delivered his sponsorship speech for the General Appropriations Bill, formally known as House Bill 5023. In his speech, Abaya urged his colleagues to support the proposed P1.816-trillion budget for next year, which will supposedly "deepen" the reforms the government is setting in place. "We find no reason why we cannot support a results-focused budget towards a straight and righteous path for this is all want to pursue," he said. Abaya, who is aligned with the administration party, added that the proposed 2012 budget, which his committee deliberated on for the past month, will "lift the poor from poverty through honest and effective governance." "Let’s us not view the three-inch thick book as a mere listing of expenditures. Rather, let us look at it as how to translate and transform the lives of our constituents as this budget is focused on the President’s social contract with them," he said. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, meanwhile, said that he expects budget deliberations to be "smooth sailing," but he respects Congress’ prerogative to change his department’s budget proposal. "If they see that there are items that need to be realigned,… they [the congressmen] are not precluded from doing that," said Abad, himself a former congressman. House Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez earlier said the opposition bloc plans to question two major issues in the proposed 2012 budget: the additional P16 billion for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program and the P23.4-billion special purpose fund for unfilled government positions. — RSJ, GMA News