Senate plenary deliberations end
SENATE President Francis Escudero yesterday said President Marcos Jr. has certified as urgent Congress’ approval of the proposed P6.352 trillion national budget for next year.
Escudero shared a copy of the President’s certification dated October 29, 2024, which stressed that the “immediate passage” of House Bill No. 10800, or the proposed 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), is necessary “to ensure the uninterrupted operation of critical government functions, guarantee the allocation of fiscal resources for vital initiatives, and enable the government to adeptly respond to emerging challenges.”
Copies of the President’s certification were furnished to the office of Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO).
The House of Representatives passed the 2025 GAB last September before Congress went on its Halloween break and transmitted its approved version to the Senate on the last week of October.
Once a measure is certified as urgent by the President, Congress is authorized to pass it on second and third reading on the same day, foregoing the three-day rule between the second and third reading approval of bills.
The Senate Committee on Finance yesterday ended marathon plenary deliberations on the spending measure, which chairperson Sen. Grace Poe sponsored on the floor last November 6.
Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said the Palace certification mandating the urgent passage of the budget bill was unnecessary.
“Not needed, because we are prioritizing the budget law anyway. We need to scrutinize the budget well,” Pimentel said in a Viber message to the media.
Poe said the “last day of the budget debates went according to the agreed schedule.”
She said the spending bill will now undergo the period of amendments.
“It won’t go to the second reading immediately as we need to give time to the senators to prepare their amendments based on the plenary debates,” Poe said in a Viber message to the media.
Yesterday, senators discussed the proposed 2025 allocations of the executive offices, state colleges and universities, the Commission on Higher Education, the Cooperative Development Authority, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Office of Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
After the period of amendments, the bill will then be approved on second and third reading. Differing provisions of the budget measure will then be reconciled by a bicameral conference committee, which would be composed of a contingent from the Senate and the House.
The reconciled version of the GAB will then be ratified by the two houses of Congress before it is transmitted to the President for his signature.
Congress is eyeing to have the 2025 national budget signed by the President before the year ends to prevent the government from operating using a reenacted budget.
