THE House of Representatives starts today, August 5, deliberations on the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget for 2025.
The House Committee on Appropriations will start the hearing with a briefing by four members of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s economic team who form the Development Budget Coordination Committee.
The economic managers are Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, National Economic and Development Authority Director General Arsenio Balisacan, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr.
They will explain to lawmakers the macroeconomic assumptions they used in coming up with the proposed budget.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said he and fellow lawmakers want to know “how the country could sustain its economic growth and how such growth could benefit our people.”
“Our economic expansion, projected by multilateral financial institutions at between 5.9 and 6.2 percent next year, should be felt by our people, especially the poor, in terms of more job and income opportunities, more affordable food on their table and lower consumer prices,” he said.
Briefing the House’s appropriations panel on Tuesday will be the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development will have their turn on Wednesday.
Scheduled for Thursday are the Department of Energy, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The committee will conduct hearings up to September 9. It will then craft the budget bill which it will send to the House plenary for consideration.
The House aims to approve the 2025 General Appropriations Bill on third and final reading before it goes on a break later this year.
Last Monday, President Marcos submitted the proposed budget or the National Expenditure Program to Romualdez.
“We are eager to start deliberation, and the members of the House are ready to scrutinize the proposed budget…,” House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said in a press conference on July 30.
Dalipe said, “[F]or our counterparts to work on it, we have to transmit it before the October break. So, we are working on a timeline of third or fourth week of September as our deadline in approving the House General Appropriations Bill on third reading and subsequently transmitting it to the Senate.”
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