By Jose Cielito Reganit | Philippine News Agency
The House of Representatives will kick off the review and deliberation on the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) on Monday and aims to finish it by Oct. 10.
House Committee on Appropriations chairperson and Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing made the announcement on Wednesday during a joint press briefing with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.
“As we always do and as the Speaker (Ferdinand Martin Romualdez) said, we will do our best to finish the budget as soon as possible. So, we will work hard, tuloy-tuloy iyong ating mga deliberasyon para po kung kakayanin natin ay ma-approve na rin po on third and final reading on Oct. 10,” Suansing said.
Originally, the House of Representatives scheduled deliberations to begin on Sept. 1, but with the submission of the NEP, the budget review process starts earlier.
“(Budget) deliberations will already kick off on Aug. 18. So, Monday we do the Development Budget Coordination Council (DBCC) (briefing), and that allows us a lot of time,” she said.
Suansing said both the House and the Senate adopted on Tuesday the resolution amending the legislative calendar so that sessions will end on Oct. 10 instead of Oct. 3.
Suansing listed the reforms the House shall implement in the budget review, such as the abolition of the small committee, the move towards an open bicameral and the engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs) in the committee deliberations.
She said there are ongoing talks between the House and the Senate, and a very close coordination with her counterpart in the Senate, Finance Committee chairperson Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, regarding the proposed reforms.
“The goal would really be for the bicam(eral) to be mostly focused on reconciliation, meaning looking at the disagreeing provisions between the two chambers and we will try to make it as open as possible … what those disagreeing provisions and what the agreements are,” she said.
