House sends 2024 proposed budget to Senate

MANILA, Philippines — In a special session held on Saturday to welcome Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the House of Representatives officially transmitted the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or the proposed 2024 national budget to the Senate.

During the plenary session, Majority Leader and Zambaonga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe made the motion to send House Bill (HB) No. 8980 to the Senate.

“Mr. Speaker, I move to immediately transmit to the Senate, House Bill No. 8980, along with the resolutions that we have adopted,” Dalipe said. 

HB No. 8980 includes the GAB, which received the House's approval on its third and final reading on September 27.

The approval of HB No. 8980 took place before minor committee adjustments were made to the proposed budget. These adjustments involved the reallocation of P194 billion in line items, including the P1.23 billion confidential funds (CF).

The redistributed amounts were allocated as follows:

• Office of the Vice President: P500 million
• Department of Information and Communications Technology: P300 million
• Department of Education: P150 million
• Department of Agriculture: P50 million
• Department of Foreign Affairs: P50 million

The special session was convened to accommodate Kishida's visit, an honor only extended to a visiting foreign leader for the fifth time in the history of the Philippine legislature.

The regular session adjourned on September 30 and will resume on Monday, November 6. 

Kishida will address the Philippine Congress at the Batasan Complex in a joint session at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Before Kishida's address to the Philippine Congress, he held a bilateral meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.