House targets approval of proposed 2025 budget before October break

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is eyeing to approve the proposed 2025 budget before the October recess while allowing for ongoing committee inquiries to continue uninterrupted.

In a press conference on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said the lower chamber is targeting to approve its version of the general appropriations bill on third reading during the third or fourth week of September.

The House will then transmit the proposed budget to the Senate prior to the October break in Congress.

"We are also under pressure to really double time our task in scrutinizing the budget because all the job that has to be started has to emanate from the House," Dalipe added.

Despite the tight schedule, Dalipe said important House inquiries would not be halted even as the legislative body becomes swamped with budget hearings.

"The chairmen of our committees are requesting to be allowed to continue the committee hearings. Previously, our problem was the lack of available rooms for committee hearing. But this year, we have new spaces for committee hearings," Dalipe said in Filipino.

Dalipe said that House Secretary General Reginald Velasco has already been instructed to find available spaces, especially in the new building, to accommodate committees that are currently conducting probes.

According to the legislative calendar, Congress will next go on recess from September 28 to November 3.

Rep. Aurelio Gonzales (Pampanga, 3rd Distrct), House senior deputy speaker, said lawmakers received copies of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) on Monday and are now busy reviewing the budget before the House begins its marathon hearings on each agency's proposed spending plan.

As in past years, the House appropriations committee will start its budget deliberations on Monday with the budget of the agencies under the Development Budget Coordinating Council, which includes the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Finance, and other agencies involved in budget creation.
 
“We will not delay things. We are eager to start deliberation, and the members of the House are ready to scrutinize the proposed budget presented by President Bongbong Marcos," Dalipe said. 

On Monday, the DBM submitted the Marcos administration's record P6.352 trillion NEP for 2025.

The NEP contains the proposed spending plan submitted by the executive branch. This is submitted to the Congress every year where lawmakers scrutinize and possibly tweak the allocations as long as it does not go above the ceiling set by the executive branch.

Once Congress finalizes the General Appropriations Bill, this is submitted to the president for signing, making it the enacted budget for the year.