Budgets of key agencies breeze through House

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed budget for 2025 of eight agencies, including three independent constitutional bodies, breezed through plenary scrutiny of the House of Representatives, which is holding final deliberations on the P6.352-trillion national budget.

Budget hearings for the Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Justice (DOJ), National Economic and Development Authority as well as the judiciary, Ombudsman and Commission on Human Rights have been terminated by the lower legislative chamber.

Deliberations for the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) headed by Secretary Jerry Acuzar, sponsored on the floor by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, was also approved late afternoon yesterday.

Sultan Kudarat Rep. Horacio Suansing, sponsor of the DOF budget, even pushed for an increase in the budget of its attached agencies, among them the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of Local Government Finance and the Philippine Tax Academy.

Suansing said the budget of the BIR “will sustain its consistent performance in expanding tax revenue collections through enforcement activities against individuals, businesses and large corporations involved in illicit trading activities.”

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong supported the proposed budget increase for the BOC, stating that the agency safeguards the country’s borders and in generating much-needed revenue for the government.

“The BOC is not only an agency tasked (with) regulating imports and exports, but it is one of the government’s agents for wealth creation, and its performance has a direct and measurable impact on our national coffers, and I believe it is only fitting that we provide it with the necessary resources to continue its outstanding results,” Adiong said.

Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, budget sponsor of the DOJ, endorsed the P37.758-billion budget of the agency under Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, which shall include other attached agencies as well, like the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Immigration, for fiscal year 2025.

“The DOJ’s budget, which is 4.22 percent higher than