(MANILA BULLETIN)
The House of Representatives will officially receive on Wednesday morning, Aug. 2 the P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024, or the precursor to next year's national budget. Information reaching House reporters Tuesday morning, Aug. 1, bared that Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman is scheduled to submit the NEP to House Speaker Martin Romualdez at 10 a.m. Wednesday. A simple program will be held at the Romualdez Hall in the House, where the DBM will have a presentation on the salient features of the NEP. A press briefing will follow the presentation. The House of Representatives possesses the power of the purse. Between the House and the Senate--which comprise Congress--it is the former that gets first dibs on tackling and scrutinizing the NEP. The House Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, is the panel that peruses the NEP. From these NEP hearings, the Co panel will draft and file the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative and leader of the 312-strong House, had earlier vowed that the GAB would get approved on third and final reading before the chamber goes on recess in October. He said the actual budget deliberations could be completed in just five weeks. The enacted 2023 budget law--also known as the General Appropriations Act (GAA)--is worth P5.268 trillion, the largest national budget in Philippine history. It was the first full-year outlay of the Marcos administration. The passage of the GAB is arguably the most important task of Congress in any given year.