House halfway through debates on 2024 budget

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is halfway through plenary debates over the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, with just about a dozen more agencies whose spending plans have yet to be scrutinized by lawmakers.

On the second week of deliberations, the only government offices whose allocations are to face congressional review are the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Health, Public Works and Highways, Foreign Affairs, Transportation, Budget and Management, and Environment and Natural Resources.

Also up are the Department of Education, which will be reviewed shortly after that of the Office of the Vice President because VP Sara Duterte heads it in concurrent capacity, and the Office of the President and its attached agencies as well as the independent constitutional body Commission on Audit.

Already, the lower chamber of the bicameral Congress terminated debates for 15 offices, including their own, and which also included the judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Elections and Commission on Human Rights.

Ten departments have also been passed upon, among them the Departments of Tourism, Trade and Industry, National Defense, Information and Communication Technology, Interior and Local Government, Justice, Migrant Workers, Labor and Employment, Social Welfare and Development, and Human Settlements and Urban Development.

The budget of the two houses of Congress – the Senate and the House led by Speaker Martin Romualdez – has a P28.4-billion allocation for fiscal year 2024, which is P10.7 billion lower that this year’s (2023) approved P39.1-billion budget.

The bicameral legislature earmarked P10.1 billion for personnel services of the Senate and the House and allotted P13.9