Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
The Senate may be able to approve the proposed P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) next week, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said on Monday, November 20.
Angara said the Senate will finish the period of interpellations for the remaining agencies that have yet to be tackled by the Upper Chamber today, so they can prepare also for the 31st Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) that would be held from November 23 to 26.
The Senate of the Philippines is this year’s host of the APPF.
At most, the senator said the 2024 GAB may be ready for President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s signature by the second week of December.
Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said senators are moving towards this target since the 2024 GAB has been certified as urgent by the President.
The remaining agencies’ budget that would have to be taken up by the Senate include the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Information and Communications (DICT), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Tourism (DOT), Commission on Audit (COA), Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and other government agencies.
However, the lawmaker said he cannot say if there would no longer be any controversial issue that would hound the budget bill, especially when the budget reaches the bicameral conference committee’s scrutiny.
“It’s hard to anticipate…Usually if there is an issue it’s on their (House of Representatives) part; it’s not an issue to us. But we will see, we can talk things over,” Angara told reporters at the sidelines of the Senate’s plenary debates on the 2024 budget.
The Senate’s version of the GAB accepted the amendments introduced by the House on the 2024 budget, particularly the removal of the confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) of all civilian agencies that have CIF.
These include the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
Vice president Sara Duterte, who heads the OVP and the DepEd, has dropped her bid to have CIF funds worth P650-million for both agencies. — Hannah Torregoza
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