The House of Representatives, after a month-long recess, will reconvene on Monday, with the ratification of the P5.268 trillion 2023 national budget as the main agenda.

The lower chamber will resume its regular sessions with a full plate of must-pass legislation for efficient public service, job creation, health, and economic recovery to protect the country's most vulnerable sector from the endemic stage of Covid-19 and global inflation, according to Speaker Martin Romualdez.

"One of our main priorities is the ratification of next year's national budget to provide social safety nets for the people and help them recover from the economic displacement caused by Covid-19," he said.

The Leyte solon added that his co-legislators in the House and Senate would work "harder" to help the economy recover, with agriculture serving as the primary driver of growth and employment.

The Senate will tackle the budget proposal before it goes to a Senate-House conference committee for its final version.

Romualdez added that Congress would back the initiative of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who called for continued support through cash transfers and fuel discounts as subsidies to the most vulnerable sectors to cushion the impact of global inflation.

LEDAC-priority bills

Aside from the national budget, the House will also prioritize passage on the third and final reading of 16 to 18 of the 30 remaining Common Legislative Agenda endorsed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory as priority measures before Congress adjourns for Christmas on 17 December.

LEDAC is a 20-member council serving as a consultative and advisory body to the President.

The lower chamber is expected to expedite the passage of LEDAC-priority bills, including the E-Governance Act and E-Government Act, pursuant to the President's call.

The majority of the priority measures mentioned by the President in his first State of the Nation Address in July were later adopted as LEDAC's CLA.

Apart from the consolidation of E-Governance and E-Government Act bills, Romualdez said the rest of the 16 priority measures include Medical Reserve Corps, Virology Institute of the Philippines, National Disease Prevention Management, Mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps and National Service Training Program, Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law;
Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interests of Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, Valuation Reform, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act, Internet Transaction Act, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery, Department of Water Resources, The New Philippine Passport Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, The Magna Carta of Barangay Health Work, and National Government Rightsizing Program.

The House will also try to pass the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers and the Budget Modernization bills on the third and final reading before the Christmas break.

There are 32 priority measures listed by the 20-member council during its first meeting, including the SIM Card Registration Law or Republic Act 11934 — Marcos' first law — and Republic Act 11935, which postponed the Barangay and SK elections on 5 December this year to the last Monday of October 2023.

The 11 other remaining CLA under LEDAC are the Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension bill; National Land Use Act, National Defense Act, Enactment of an Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry, Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, Establishment of Regional Specialty Hospitals, Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, Establishing the Negros Island Region, The Apprenticeship Act, Providing Free Legal Assistance for Military and Uniformed Personnel, The Creation of the Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone, and The Creation of the Eastern Visayas Development Authority.

Budget should be flexible

Senator Francis Tolentino said the proposed budget must be both flexible and receptive to future natural and man-made disasters.

"The calamities in the country are happening year-round. The calamities not just affect the residential, agriculture and education, they also affect even transportation like what happened to the collapsed bridge that linked Batangas and Quezon," Tolentino said in his weekly radio program.

"Almost everything is affected by the calamities that is why maybe we should adjust the budget to make it more adaptive and responsive to existing, forthcoming calamities," he added.

Tolentino said he will ensure that the budget bill can adjust to these kinds of catastrophes so that funds will be easily made available for government agencies in charge.

"Everyone is focusing on the national budget, on what will be engaged because it has to be responsive in calamities," he stressed.

Last week, Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri vowed that the impact of severe tropical storm "Paeng" will be discussed during the scheduled deliberation of the budget on Monday.

"'Paeng' will figure largely in our budget deliberations, once they start in the Senate next week. We will have to consult with the NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) and local governments to assess our recovery roadmap," Zubiri said.

Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, previously said the panel is open to adjusting the funding for calamity aids.

Angara said the calamity fund would be roughly P30 billion, which is larger than in past years.

WITH JOM GARNER @tribunephl_ jom