Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri appealed on Monday to colleagues in the 23-member Senate to attend regular sessions to facilitate the passage of the proposed 2010 P1.5-trillion national budget when the chamber returns from a week-long recess on December 2, 2009.

The Senate is expected to pass the proposed 2010 General Appropriations Act (GAA) which the House approved last November 8. The House is having the thick budget printed for submission to the Senate.

Zubiri said senators, particularly those running for president, owe to the people the early passage of important measures, particularly the GAA. The winning presidential bet would be using the same GAA, he added.

The young legislator said he expects Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, to deliver his sponsorship speech on the budget when Congress resumes regular session on December 2, a day after the filing of certificates of candidacy by those seeking national positions.

The Senate went on a week-long recess after November 19. Its regular session last November 17 was called off for lack of quorum.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. expressed apprehension that the government may be forced to run on a reenacted budget next year due to the delay in Congress deliberations on GAA for fiscal year 2010.

After the passage of the budget in a 175-6 vote last November 8, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said that “we hope to approve it before the end of the year (and) as I have promised, there will be no reenacted budget during my watch.’’

A consequence of the failure by Congress to approve the final version of the new budget before Congress goes into Christmas recess by December 18 is the automatic reenactment of the 2009 budget.

“A reenacted budget should be avoided by all means because it gives the President too much discretion in the disbursement of public funds while undermining the power of Congress over the purse,” Pimentel said.

“When the old budget is reenacted, funds even for programs and projects already implemented in the previous year are reallocated to be released and spent by the Chief Executive as it if were his or her pork barrel. Ultimately, this distorts the budgetary process,’’ he said.

Pimentel said there is urgency in approving the budget bill on time because it becomes increasingly difficult for the Senate and House of Representatives to muster a quorum at this awkward period of time when reelectionist senators and congressmen are preoccupied with campaign sorties.

He noted that the Senate has not yet started floor debates on the 2010 budget although based on the legislative calendar, the appropriations measure should have been taken up in plenary session by the third week of November.

Pimentel said he was upset when Congress went on a week-long recess days ago on the request of the House to allow its members to go to the provinces to file their certificates of candidacy.

“That may be a good excuse for re-electionist congressmen to go to the provinces. But the session should not be suspended at the expense of the budgetary process,” Pimentel said.

By tradition, Congress does not go on recess after the November 2 All Souls Day until it goes on a Christmas break by mid-December precisely to give lawmakers more time to discuss and approve the national budget.

With the loss of two weeks of session, Pimentel said the Senate is forced to work on the budget under extreme time constraints.

The minority leader said this also means that there will be no more time for the bicameral conference committee to reconcile conflicting provisions of the Senate and House versions of the appropriations measure.

“I and my colleagues at the Senate will not have sufficient time to scrutinize the GAA, especially the huge lump sum appropriations that will be put at the President and the heads of executive departments,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel stressed that it is important for Congress to thoroughly examine all budget items and put necessary safeguards against misuse and illegal diversion of funds especially in view of the May, 2010 presidential, congressional and local elections when the temptation to use public funds for the candidates of the administration is strong.