The House Committee on Appropriations' decision to hold a briefing with the country’s top economic managers Tuesday, Feb. 28 was in line with the Chief Executive's order to improve the lives of Filipinos.
Thus, said House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who personally attended the briefing as if to underscore its importance.
"We have actually asked the leadership, particularly the appropriations committee to conduct this oversight hearing to hear and to see how Congress and the economic managers can work together, pursuing our President’s whole of government approach to addressing problems of our economy," Romualdez said in his opening remarks.
Flanking the Speaker from either side were appropriations panel chairman, AKO-BICOL Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co; and panel senior vice chairperson, Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo.
"We are here together to see how we can work hand-in-hand and we'd like to very much hear from our economic managers how we can engage and make sure that our functions here in the Congress would become more meaningful, more responsive to the needs of the Filipino people," Romualdez said.
"This is our mission, thus is the order of our president, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., to make sure that the lives of Filipino people are much better, that they be more comfortable, safer," added the Leyte 1st district representative.
Attending the briefing were the members of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
These included Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ben Diokno, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe Medalla, and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Arsenio Balisacan, among others.
The continuing fast inflation and its impact on the government’s programs and projects were among the topics of the briefing.
"One of the pressing issues is of course the inflation rate. Of course this is a global phenomenon," commented Romualdez.
"But again, hearing from you would be a very, very good thing for us to prioritize and again, I reiterate the Congress' willingness to work hand-in-hand and as they would say, that we would like to be marching in lockstep with the executive in pursuing the solutions to the economic challenges that the country faces," he further said.
The briefing was ongoing as of this posting.