Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. led the House of Representatives in pledging to fast-track the approval of the proposed P14.6 billion supplemental budget for 2013 to fund the massive relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas devastated by super typhoon “Yolanda” (international code name: Haiyan).

Belmonte, the NUP’s honorary chairman, said that the additional budget would be sourced from the remaining balance of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which the Supreme Court earlier declared as unconstitutional.

The House had originally planned to realign the remaining PDAF allocation for this year to the Calamity Fund, but after the high court declared the PDAF unconstitutional, the next best option would be to come up with a supplemental budget to finance the post-“Yolanda” operations in areas severely affected by the monster storm, the Speaker explained.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad had said the PDAF for this year still has a balance of at least P14.6 billion in “unreleased appropriations and unobligated allotments.”

Belmonte said the House intends to pass  before the Christmas break the proposed supplemental budget that President Benigno Aquino III will submit to Congress next week.

“Time is of the essence because the year is ending. The efficacy of those funds is one year under the current 2013 budget so it is necessary to act fast so the funds can be obligated before the end of the year,” Belmonte said.

The President’s certification of the supplemental budget proposal as urgent would further speed up its approval “as it would do away with some processes,” Belmonte noted.

“I hope there will be no quarrel on it. We are 100 percent for the supplemental budget and for the use of the remaining congressional [PDAF] for typhoon victims and the devastated communities,” he said.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said if the President submits his proposed supplemental budget on Monday, the House would try to approve it before the next week is over so it could be sent to the Senate the following Monday.

He, however, said that the approval process might be slowed down by “concerns of other members whose districts were devastated by other typhoons like Sendong, Pablo and Santi, and whose rehabilitation is far from finished.”