VILLAR: A NEW BUDGET IS STILL BETTER THAN A REENACTED
BUDGET WITH A SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET

Senator Manny Villar, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, still believes that passing a new budget for 2006 is still a better option than approving a budget to supplement a reenacted budget.

"Passing a supplemental budget would not make the reenacted budget more appealing. We all know that the supplemental budget was passed post-haste in order to appease the government workers whose salary increases were being delayed together with the 2006 national budget. It's just a stop-gap measure," cites Villar.

Villar further cites, "They might think that a reenacted budget with a supplemental budget is a win-win solution or option. But as I always point out, a reenacted budget paints a bad image for our country to foreign investors and financial institutions as well as to our people because we cannot even manage to pass a new budget on time each year."

The Lower House has already approved the supplemental budget that allots a P1,000 increase in monthly allowance to government employees while the proposed P1.03-trillion 2006 national budget is still pending and still subject to floor deliberations.

According to Villar, "The fact that they have already approved the supplemental budget is a clear indication that they are in favor of just reenacting the 2005 budget. How else can you explain a supplemental budget getting passed ahead of the main budget? But as for us in the Senate, we would continue with the budget deliberations."