House reconvenes on Monday with ratification of 2025 national budget as top priority

THE House of Representatives will reconvene on Monday with the ratification of the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget on top of its agenda for the remainder of its session this year.

Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” M. Dalipe on Sunday said the House expects the Senate to pass the budget proposal soon so the two chambers could task a bicameral conference committee to come up with a common version of the outlay.

“We hope to ratify the bicam report before our Dec. 20 Christmas break. There is enough time to approve the final version of the budget,” Dalipe said.

Dalipe assured the nation that the proposed budget would be ready to be signed into law by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. before the end of 2024.

“As in the past, the spending program for the coming year will be in place before the current fiscal year is over to ensure continuity of spending and seamless implementation of activities and programs,” Dalipe added.

He pointed out that the national budget is the single most important piece of legislation Congress passes each year.

Aside from prioritizing the final approval of the 2025 outlay, Dalipe said the House would continue to exercise its oversight power through its various committees, including the Quad Comm, the panel of the Good Government and Public Accountability, and the Quinta Comm created before the recess in September.

“We remain steadfast in protecting our people from abuses and in exposing acts of wrongdoing in government,” Dalipe said.

He said the Quad Comm is set to hold additional hearings on the bloody war on drugs of the Duterte administration and extrajudicial killings tied to it, on illegal Philippine offshore and gambling operators (POGOs) and on the drug menace, among other issues.

The mega panel is scheduled to conduct its 10th hearing on November 7 and anticipating the attendance of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to attend its inquiry.

Dalipe said that the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability would continue its inquiry into the unexplained confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte.

As for the Quinta Comm – composed of five House committees – its mandate is to inquire into smuggling and price manipulation of basic goods and protect the public from unreasonable price increases, Dalipe said.

He said in addition to the proposed 2025 national budget, the House would work in passing the remaining measures in the LEDAC (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) priority list: the Budget Modernization Bill, National Defense Bill, amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law, and amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease.

He said the House has approved on third and final reading 26 of the 28 bills in the LEDAC list targeted for approval by the end of the term of the current 19th Congress on June 30, 2025.

The remaining two LEDAC measures set for approval are Amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law and Amendments to the Foreign Investors Long-Term Lease.

Six of the 24 have been signed into law by President Marcos: Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act (Republic Act No. 12009), Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act (RA 12010), amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act (RA 12022), VAT on Digital Transactions (RA 12023), Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act (RA 12024) , and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program (RA 12028).

Four others have been transmitted to the President for his signature: CREATE MORE Bill, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Archipelagic Sea Lanes Bill, and the Enterprise-Based Education and Training Program Bill.

Since the start of the 19th Congress up to last recess – a total of 166 session days, Dalipe said the House has processed 4,504 measures, or an average of 27 per day.

Of those measures, 103 have been enacted into law, he said.