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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Solons to start bicam meetings on P5.768-T 2024 national budget

Solons to start bicam meetings on P5.768-T 2024 national budget

Published Nov 29, 2023 10:45 am

At A Glance

  • The bicameral conference committee meetings on the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget will begin on Thursday, Nov. 30.

The bicameral conference committee meetings on the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget will begin on Thursday, Nov. 30.

There, select members of the Senate and the House of Representatives (HOR) will meet and formally iron out the disagreeing provisions of the House and Senate versions of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for fiscal year 2024.

The meetings aim to come up with a common version that will be ratified by both chambers. Afterward, both the Senate and the House of Representatives will ratify the measure before sending it to President Marcos for his signature.

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III floated the idea that the confidential funds that Vice President Sara Duterte gave up could be restored. He noted that the bicam has the power to introduce anything.

"Theoretically speaking puwede ma-restore kaya siguro yung mga interesado sa issue na nagbabantay, hanggang dulo ang pagbabantay. Yung bicam report dapat bantayan (Theoretically speaking it can be restored so those interested in it who are monitoring should be see it to the end. They should look at the bicam report)," he added.

The members of the Senate who will attend the bicameral meeting for the 2024 budget are Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senators Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Cynthia Villar, Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, Sherwin Gatchalian, Christopher "Bong" Go, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Mark Villar, Francis Tolentino, Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros.

Meanwhile, Angara confirmed that the Senate's version of the GAB adopted Senator Risa Hontiveros' proposal to prohibit the use of contingent funds in augmenting confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).

Pimentel said he was told by Hontiveros of a special provision stating that contingent funds cannot be used to augment CIFs. However, Pimentel's proposal to remove intel funds and reduce the confidential funds of the Office of the President (OP) was not adopted.

Voting 21-0, the Senate on Tuesday, Nov. 28 approved on third and final reading the proposed GAB for 2024.

Twenty-one senators gave affirmative votes, while there were zero negative votes and one abstention.

Related Tags

bicameral conference committee Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III Senator Sonny Angara
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