2025 budget approval is top House priority

APPROVAL of the P6.352-trillion proposed national budget for 2025 will be the top priority of the House of Representatives in the Third Regular Session of the 19th Congress, Speaker Martin Romualdez said yesterday.

The House leader issued the statement a day after President Marcos Jr. approved the proposed national for next year, which Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman targets to submit to Congress within a week from the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.

“Aside from our commitment in approving the few remaining LEDAC (Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council) priority measures (agreed upon during its 5th full council meeting June 25), the House will again work doubly hard to pass the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) before we go on break this end of September 2024. We will then transmit the GAB to the Senate for its consideration,” he said in a statement.

Romualdez said the House would ensure enough funding for education, agriculture, the modernization and welfare programs of the armed forces, infrastructure, and the legacy projects of President Marcos, among other priorities for budget allocation.

He said education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, and defense have to be supported as well “to make food products accessible and affordable and accelerate the country’s development in an environment of peace and stability.”

“We have to continue building roads, highways, ports, school buildings, climate change-proof structures, and similar infrastructure to maintain and expand economic growth. Progress has to reach the remotest communities,” he said.

The proposed budget for the upcoming year is 10.1 percent higher than the 2024 General Appropriations Act at P5.768 trillion, and equivalent to 22 percent of gross domestic product.

The proposed budget for next year is anchored on three pillars of the PDP: Pillar 1 – Develop and Protect the Capabilities of Individuals and Families; Pillar 2 – Transform Production Sectors to Generate More Quality Jobs and Competitive Products; Pillar 3 – Create an Enabling Environment.

Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol), chair of the House committee on appropriations, said