House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is aiming to have the P4.5-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved by end of September, a target that -- if met -- would equal the pace of last year's extraordinarily swift budget deliberations.

This will also allow for the early submission of the GAB to the Senate, he said in a statement Sunday.

“It’s a very ambitious schedule to send it right away to the Senate, because we hope that, for the first time in history, if I'm not mistaken, we can sign the budget maybe late November or mid-November as a sign of unity by our country," Cayetano said.

“We will work together diligently with the Senate, our counterparts, and with all the sectors. We invite media to scrutinize every part of the budget, and we will work with the Executive branch to come up with a very, very good budget in 2021,” he added.

Last week, the Executive branch sent to the House the proposed P4.5-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2021. The NEP will be used by legislators as the basis for the GAB.

The initial hearing on the national budget has been set on Sept. 4. An obvious challenge for solons this year would be holding of new normal video conference-based virtual hearings in place of live, face-to-face hearings which the new coronavirus has made untenable.

Last year, the House managed to pass the P4.1-trillion budget for 2020 in a record 20 working days, or just a month-long period from start to finish.

"We will be very transparent. All the members of the opposition in the House, we will give you first a copy of the budget and listen to you first and give you more time so this budget will be a product of the whole of Congress, the whole of the representations of the Filipino people, not only of the administration,” Cayetano said.

Deputy Majority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera also stressed this need for speed in the upcoming budget hearings.

“This year, Congress is faced with an all-important task of ensuring that the 2021 national budget would serve as a powerful tool to defeat COVID-19, build long-term resilience, and support economic recovery,” she said.

“We need to act fast, scrutinize carefully, and make the necessary improvements to what would probably be one of the most important national budgets in the country’s recent history,” noted Herrera.

She underscored the need for Congress to pass a national budget that will sustain government efforts to safeguard the health and lives of Filipinos as well as tackle the economic challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House Appropriations Committee chaired by ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap will lead the perusal of the budget measure.

“We will pass the budget on time so the needed measures can be implemented right away early next year. We’re racing against time here and we need the health and economic programs for our recovery,” Yap said.