HOUSE Committee on Appropriations Chairman Eric Go Yap said on Monday he has set a meeting with Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Thursday to discuss his proposal to certify as urgent the P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022.
According to Yap, his committee will immediately start the budget process with briefings from Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on Thursday.
He said the House is eyeing to finish and approve the 2022 national budget by September 30.
As promised, the Executive branch through the Department of Budget and Management on Monday submitted the National Expenditure Program for 2022 to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
For his part, Speaker Velasco vowed to scrutinize the NEP for 2022.
“Today, we gladly received from President Rodrigo Roa Duterte—through the Department of Budget and Management—the National Expenditure Program that would assist the legislature in the review and deliberation of the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2022,” he said.
“This officially signals the start of the budget season in Congress or the legislative process of evaluation, debate and amendment which we hope could lead to the timely and decisive passage of the 2022 General Appropriations Act,” he added.
Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said he supports the decision of President Duterte to mainstream health in every aspect of the budget priorities.
“Now that Congress has formally received the 2022 NEP, it is now the duty of your Representatives to review the proposed budget to ensure that the people’s taxes will be spent fairly and equitably among regions. Rest assured that during the congressional review, our people’s interest in these challenging times will be our primordial concern,” Romualdez added.
Senate ‘on track’
The Senate is on track to start early review of the P5.024-trillion proposed 2021 national budget upon receipt of the voluminous documents detailing the various spending items to be funded in the annual General Appropriations Act.
The senators, as in the past, are expected to break up into smaller committees that can simultaneously scrutinize the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and sort out questionable items with executive agencies, in order to fast-track review and Senate deliberations once the House approves their budget version.
The voluminous budget documents comprising the NEP were submitted to Senate President Vicente Sotto III by DBM Undersecretary Janet Abuel.
Budget OIC-Secretary Tina Rose Canda was unable to present the budget documents, having tested positive for Covid-19, which earlier also infected her predecessor, Wendel Avisado.
The proposed P5.024-trillion budget bill was said to be 11.5
percent higher, or P500 billion more in next year’s budget compared to this year’s P4.5-trillion budget.
In accordance with the rules, the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Angara, will spearhead scrutiny of the annual multitrillion-peso budget bill before the annual money measure is submitted for plenary approval.
But while the Senate Finance Committee and its sub-committees can conduct hearings on the national budget, senators will still need to wait for congressmen to approve their version of the budget bill as the rule provides that all money measures must emanate from the House of Representatives.