Recto: Palace should ask Congress to resume 2005 budget talks - Malaya 07.20.2006

SEN. Ralph Recto yesterday said Malacañang should woo the Senate and House of Representatives a week before the President asks Congress for a 2007 national budget to resume stalled budget talks for the 2006 outlay.

"I think Malacañang should work on forging common ground with the House and the Senate so that the 2006 budget can be rescued from the archives, instead of going through another grueling campaign of having a supplemental budget passed," Recto said. "The 2006 budget is in its finishing stage. Ito ay malapit nang matapos. Ang supplemental budget ay nasa square one pa."

The senator said the P1.053 - trillion 2006 budget is vastly superior to a "reinforced, reenacted" 2005 budget. He said a supplemental budget is "tantamount to a budget cut" and the public will be shortchanged by P100 billion.

Recto said that savings incurred as a result of a reenacted 2005 budget will just be channeled to debt payments "given the propensity of the economic managers not to pass any opportunity to pre-terminate our debt." He reminded the government that "it entered into a contract with the people when it courted their support for new taxes that in exchange for their sacrifice there will be new investments in social services and infrastructure."

The 2006 national budget got stalled last June after senators and congressmen sitting in the bicameral conference committee failed to reach a compromise. The House has demanded full restoration of the P300-billion cut that the Senate imposed ion the budget, which senators said was "non-negotiable." Malacañang, for its part, threatened to veto the budget document if pruned by Congress. – Dennis Gadil