THE House of Representatives is on track to approve the P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) after the lower chamber’s plenary approved the budget of 28 agencies for next year.
The agencies with plenary-approved budget are Department of Finance, Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, National Economic and Development Authority, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Optical Media Board, and Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority.
The budget deliberations of Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Credit Information Corp., Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman, Philippine Center for Economic Development, Presidential Communications Operations Office, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Civil Service Commission, Department of Trade and Industry, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Bases Conversion and Development Authority and Department of Justice have also been concluded.
The House plenary also approved the 2020 funding of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Department of Health, Department of Science and Technology, Commission on Higher Education, Games and Amusement Board, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Racing Commission and Philippine Competition Commission.
On Friday, the House will deliberate on the budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and its attached agencies, Department of Labor and Employment, Office of the Presidential Adviser of the Peace Process, Mindanao Development Authority, Climate Change Commission, Commission on Filipinos Overseas and Department of Foreign Affairs.
The House is eyeing to finish the budget deliberations of the remaining government agencies next week.
House Bill 4228, or the General Appro-priations Bill, seeks to appropriate funds for the operation of the government of the Republic of the Philippines from January 1 to December 31, 2020.
The proposed 2020 General Appropriations Act is expected to be approved on third and final reading on or before October 4. The House will then transmit the national budget to the Senate for its own deliberations on October 8.
The Congress is eyeing to submit the 2020 national budget to President Duterte on December 20.
No repeat of debacle
In a weekly news forum on Thursday, Deputy Speaker Michael Romero, president of party-list 1-Pacman, said the House is on its way to beat its self-imposed deadline for the approval of HB 4228 before Congress goes on recess on October 4.
Romero said the House wants to avoid a repeat of the delay in the approval of 2019 GAA.
He repeated the claim of analysts and economic managers that the economy suffered due to the four-month delay in the passage of the budget for this year.
Romero said the country lost some $8.917 billion or P463.686 billion from January to June based on the average GDP of 5.5 percent during the period.
“This translates to losses of about P77 billion per month or P6.4 billion per day. That’s the effect of the delayed enactment of the budget for four to five months that slowed down our economy due to nonspending,” he said.
“The delayed budget had serious repercussions; it really took its toll on our economy,” Romeo added.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila