House puts budget under microscope

The House of Representatives will start today marathon hearings into the P6.352-trillion proposed national budget for fiscal year 2025.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Elizaldy Co will lead the opening of the committee deliberations on the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

The Department of Budget and Management submitted the NEP to the House last week.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s economic team headed by Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, National Economic and Development Authority Director General Arsenio Balisacan, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Eli Remolona Jr. will be the first to face the House.

They are expected to discuss the state of the country’s economy and the economic foundations considered in putting together the NEP.

On Tuesday, two major contributors to the national treasure, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, will face the House.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development will be on deck on Wednesday, while it will be the turn of the Department of Energy, Commission on Higher Education and Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday.

The panel will conduct hearings on the proposed budget until 9 September. The House aims to approve the 2025 General Appropriations Bill, containing the proposed NEP before Congress goes on a recess before the end of September.

Speaker Romualdez said he is keen to increase the allocations of the government’s pro-poor programs, including direct financial assistance to the poor and other vulnerable sectors, other social services, education, health and infrastructure.

“Maybe we cannot get all the data from our resource persons tomorrow, but this is a forewarning to all agency heads who will be asked to attend our hearings: They should better be prepared when it is their turn to face us,” he said.

The 2025 national budget — 10 percent higher than this year’s P5.768 trillion — would be the biggest national expenditure ever, if approved by Congress. It is equivalent to 22 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The Department of Education, the Department of Public Works and Highways, and the Department of Health are poised to get a lion’s share of the entire budget, based on the NEP.