House starts debates on P3.35-T 2017 budget

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives started yesterday its plenary debates on the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.

The deliberations started with a sponsorship speech of House committee on appropriations chairman Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles.

“This proposed budget aims to ensure that our limited resources are maximized toward making the government work better for the people, most especially those in the countryside, who have felt forgotten and neglected,” Nograles said.

The plenary budget deliberations will be conducted Monday to Friday until Oct. 7 to meet the deadline to approve the outlay by late October.

 The period of amendments has been set for Oct. 7.

The plenary deliberations expounded on House Bill 3408 or the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2017.

“It is a budget that pours public resources where it counts most – to support the policy and program infrastructure for social change and sustained economic development,” Nograles said.

“It is a budget that expands the productive capacities of the national economy to ensure that the poor are enabled to engage in the processes of and benefit from the fruits of growth, to bring nation building to the consciousness and reality of every Filipino,” he added.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez assured the public that the 2017 budget would be ready by January next year.

“There will be no reenacted budget. President Duterte’s 2017 budget will be ready by the start of next year,” Alvarez said.

Nograles said the budget hearings and pre-plenary conferences allowed members of the House panel to study and review the proposal of each government office.

“We are ready to defend the budget. We have gone through a series of budget briefings and pre-plenary hearings. So we have all heard the concerns and issues raised by the members of the House,” Nograles said.

He said any amendment to the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) would be decided collectively by the House.

“The House of Representatives is a collective body. We will decide during the period of amendments any proposed changes or amendments to the budget,” Nograles said.

The House will print the budget after approving it next month before transmitting it to the Senate.

 “Public discussions on Charter change that would shift the country to federal system of government will not distract us from the timely passage of the proposed outlay for next year,” Alvarez said.

House Majority Leader Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, a stalwart of the ruling Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, said the House will ratify the national budget by December.

“We will pass the GAB in time for the President to sign it on or before we adjourn on Dec. 14. This will be the first National Expenditure Program of the President and we will see his priorities for his first year in office,” he said.