Temperature range: Minority mulls SC appeal By Charlie V. Manalo 09/18/2011

‘EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS DURING PAST ADMINISTRATION’

Temperature range: Minority mulls SC appeal

By Charlie V. Manalo 09/18/2011

The House minority and members of the progressive bloc in the lower chamber branded the approval late Friday night of the proposed P1.816-trillion 2012 budget on second reading as rushed “exactly the same way as in the previous administration,” with them raising the possibility of questioning the approved Appropriations Act before the Supreme Court.

The budget passing second reading is as good as approved since a third reading will be mere formalities.
Voting viva voce, the House passed on second reading House Bill 5023, otherwise known as the General Appropriations Bill, but in his turno en contra speech, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño denounced the proposed budget, saying it does not address the fundamental problems of chronic poverty and underdevelopment and instead reduces the national budget into an instrument of doleouts and the privatization of basic social services.

An obviously elated Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, nevertheless, described the budget as being “grounded on the realities” of the national and global economy..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110918hed1.html