House set to receive proposed P5.268 trillion 2023 national budget Monday
The House of Representatives is set to receive tomorrow (Monday) the
proposed 2023 national budget, which the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) earlier revealed would amount to a record high of P5.268 trillion.
The proposal would be the first full one-year outlay of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The proposed budget for next year is P244 billion or almost five
percent more than this year’s P5.024 trillion outlay.
Marcos will submit the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the
executive department’s version of the national budget, through Budget
Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.
On hand to receive it will be Speaker Martin Romualdez, Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, House Committee on Appropriations chairman and Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co and his senior vice chairperson, Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo.
The turnover ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at the social hall of the Speaker’s Office.
Under the Constitution, the President “shall submit to the Congress
within 30 days from the opening of every regular session, as the basis
of the general appropriations bill (GAB), a budget of expenditures and
sources of financing, including receipts from existing and proposed
revenue measures.”
The budget and its accompanying documents are submitted to the larger
chamber of Congress because the Constitution provides that “all
appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of
the public debt, bills of local application, and private bills shall
originate exclusively in the House of Representatives, but the Senate
may propose or concur with amendments.”
The Palace has traditionally been furnishing the Senate
copies of its budget submissions on the day that it presents them to
the House.
House leaders have vowed to finish committee and plenary deliberations
on the budget proposal before October 1, when Congress is scheduled to
go on its first recess that will last up to November 6.
“Last Congress, we did it, we were able to beat the September 30
deadline. We gave all members of the House time to deliberate,
interpellate intelligently on all departments,” Dalipe told a news
forum on Tuesday.
“The budget process starts here and we want to give all House members
time to scrutinize the proposed budget. I can confidently say that we
can make the September 30 deadline,” he said.
The appropriations committee will begin hearings on the NEP on August
26 with a briefing by the Marcos administration’s economic managers on
the macro-economic parameters used in putting the spending proposal
together.
Quimbo, senior vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations,
said the committee aims to finish its hearings by September 16, which
is a Friday, to give the House two weeks for plenary deliberations and
third and final reading approval before the October 1 recess.
She said the committee chaired by Co is committed to the swift
approval of the proposed “economic recovery budget.” Office of Speaker Martin G. Romualdez
