THE House of Representatives is expected to approve Malacañang’s proposed P6.352 trillion national budget for 2025 on third and final reading on Wednesday, Speaker Martin Romualdez said yesterday.

“Next year’s spending legislation will serve as our tool for sustained economic development. It will support the Agenda for Prosperity programs of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,” Romualdez said in a statement.

He also said the budget would “serve as an instrument for the government to spread the dividends of economic progress through various social protection and financial assistance initiatives, and funding for infrastructures like roads, hospitals, classrooms, seaports and airports, irrigation systems, and transportation networks.”

The Speaker said the House will adhere to its self-imposed timeline “because we are treating the national spending program with urgency without sacrificing transparency.”

The House started plenary discussions on the 2025 budget outlay two weeks ago.

Romualdez said approving the budget before Congress goes on recess next weekend would give the Senate enough time to deliberate on the money measure so it could be approved before the end of the year.

“We (House and the Senate) have sufficient time to finally agree on the budget before yearend. It is the most important piece of legislation Congress passes every year,” he said.

The recommended reduced budget for the Office of the President and the controversial Office of the Vice President (OVP) will be tackled today in the House plenary.

The appropriations panel last week slashed the OVP’s proposed P2.037 billion budget by a whopping 63.8 percent, approving only P733.198 million after Vice President Sara Duterte refused to answer questions from lawmakers related to how her office spent its P2.3 billion allocation in 2023.

Also scheduled to be tackled until to Wednesday are the proposed budgets of the Department of Agriculture, National Irrigation Administration, Department of Health, Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Commission, Civil Service Commission, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Commission on Audit, Department of Transportation, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Congress, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Education, and several executive offices.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, who chairs the House Committee on Rules, said President Marcos Jr. is expected to certify the proposed 2025 as urgent to enable the House to approve the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on both second and final reading on the same day.

Before approving the budget on Wednesday, the House will hear turno en contra (for and against) remarks by those opposed to the outlay, followed by the period of amendments.

Due to expected numerous amendment suggestions, the House, as in previous years, is planning to create a small committee to consolidate the proposed amendments.