After two weeks of marathon sessions, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Tuesday declared that the “period of debates” for the P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2024 was over.
The Senate panel deliberations on the national budget of the Office of the President and all government offices and its attached agencies ended 4:42 a.m. yesterday.
Zubiri acknowledged the participation of all the senators, both from the majority and the minority blocs.
However, only Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Risa Hontiveros representing the minority made most of the interpellations on the proposed budget.
Senate Finance committee chairperson Senator Juan Edgardo Sonny Angara said after the period of interpellation, he will introduce amendments to the measure.
The panel will submit also its proposed amendments to the 2024 national budget for approval on second, and third and final reading of the plenary. The measure has been “certified as urgent” by President Marcos.
Once approved on third and final reading by the Senate, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives will convene the bicameral conference committee to tackle the disagreeing provisions of the 2024 GAA.
Both houses of Congress will ratify the final version of the GAA next week and will submit the document to Malacañang for the signature of the President.
One of the highlights of the budget deliberations in the Senate is the P10.7 billion proposed budget of the Office of the President (OP), which breezed through the hearing in just 20 minutes.
No questions were raised on the P4.56 billion confidential and intelligence funds of the OP based on the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). This is almost half of the department’s proposed budget.
“There are no colleagues, that means I think they have a vote of confidence in your budget, so we will favorably endorse your budget for plenary consideration,” Angara said.
The proposed national budget of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education were also highlighted.
Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also DepEd Secretary, decided not to pursue the P500 million confidential funds of the OVP and the P150 million intelligence fund of the DepEd.
The secret funds requested by Duterte drew flak from some lawmakers, asserting that her offices are both civilian agencies.
On the other hand, the Senate slashed the proposed confidential funds of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Senate finance committee reduced the Ombudsman confidential fund to P1 billion from P51 million while it gave only P168 million from the P256 million requested in confidential funds for the DOJ.
The Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) scrapped their request for secret funds.
Congress now braces for the enactment of the 2024 national budget before Christmas this year.
The House of Representatives, led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, which first scrutinized the NEP before it was transmitted to the Senate, passed the proposed 2024 national budget on the third and final reading on September 27.
