House Speaker Martin Romualdez said Wednesday that the proposed 2023 P5.268 national budget may be signed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. next week, when he returns from Belgium.

“We have ratified the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the national budget, which should be ready for the signature of the President after he returns from his trip to Brussels (in Belgium),” Romualdez said, according to news reports.

Marcos is scheduled to go to Belgium to attend ASEAN-European Union (EU) Commemorative Summit, which will be held from December 11 to 14.

Senator Sonny Angara said the decision of the bicameral conference committee to restore the Department of Education’s P150 million confidential funds was done through a concession.

“Well, that’s the original proposal of the DBM and the DepEd in the National Expenditure Program. This is the budget by the president after the SONA, which is debated in the Congress by first, the House and then, the Senate,” Angara told the ABS-CBN News Channel Wednesday.

“This is the last thing to be resolved late in the evening, the day before the bicam. But at the end of the day, we had to make some concessions. But the concession was that let’s restore it for DepEd, but for agencies that we slashed, we kept those cuts. There are cuts to at least five or six agencies' confidential funds or intelligence funds,” he added.

Angara denied reports that the House slashed the confidential funds and clarified that it was only realigned when the General Appropriations bill was transmitted to the Senate.

On the restored P10 billion of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), he said the Senate decided to keep its original budget proposal, while the House had consultations with stakeholders.

“Actually, the Senate didn't touch any NTF-ELCAC budget, initially. We just keep whatever the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) and the EL-CAC proposed on their budget or proposal budget or the NEP,” he said.

“But at the end, the House made some consultation amongst leaders and I think there was a clamor from the agency, from some local government officials to maintain the level. So that was the House and the Senate did to bicam. We did not object for that proposal,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS