THE House committee on appropriations has wrapped up its budget hearings for the proposed P3.35-trillion General Appropriations Act and will now proceed with final tweaks on next year’s national expenditure program before presenting it to the plenary for approval.
The panel chairman, Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, said his committee started conducting pre-plenary briefings prior to the commencement of plenary deliberation tentatively by September 27.
Nograles said that he is hopeful that all issues about the proposed budget for every department, including the concerns of some lawmakers which were not addressed by agency representatives during the first round of appropriations hearings, will be ironed out and tweaked during the pre-plenary conferences.
“What we want is to bring everything on the table to iron out all the problems before we present the budget for plenary deliberations,” Nograles said.
“This is President Duterte’s maiden budget and I hope that we can really fast-track the process so that we can move on to other pressing legislative matters such as the proposed constitutional change and the fight against contractualization,” Nograles added.
On September 19, Nograles said his committee will present the Department of Agriculture, the National Food Authority, the Pasig Rehabilitation Commission, the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
Last Thursday, Nograles said his panel has already completed the pre-plenary conferences for the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Agrarian Reform.
“I am really happy that even the DSWD budget which I expected to face some kind of resistance breezed through the pre-plenary conference without any problem. I just hope this will hold true with other departments,” Nograles said.
Nograles said that he does not foresee any major change in the allocations submitted by Malacanang.
“I am hoping our colleagues recognize the urgent need to have a solid expenditure program to finance the president’s reform agenda, and allow a smooth and trouble-free approval of the national budget,” Nograles said.
If all goes according to schedule, Nograles said that the Duterte administration’s “budget for change” would be presented for plenary debates before end of September and will be approved in the House of Representatives by mid-October.