(MANILA BULLETIN)

The House Committee on Appropriations will formally begin to tackle the P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) on Thursday, Aug. 10 when it hosts the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for a briefing on the 2024 spending plan.

The Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co-led panel will begin the briefing at 9:30 a.m. It is expected to last the entire day.

Composed of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Finance (DOF), and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the DBCC is traditionally the first set of agencies to show up during the committee budget hearings.

To be discussed are the general principles of the NEP, including the sources of financing, expenditure levels and the budget proposals of the different departments.

Expected to attend are DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, DOF Secretary Benjamin Diokno, NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan, and BSP Gov. Eli Remolona.

The leader of House, Speaker Martin Romualdez said he and his colleagues would want to know from the administration’s economic managers “how the country could sustain its economic growth and how such growth could benefit our people".

He said many of the poor Filipinos complain that the economic boom is benefitting only the rich, the big companies, and stock and financial market players.

“The poor say they cannot eat growth. If majority of our people do not feel our economic expansion, they should at least see it in terms of the proper use of the national budget for social services, infrastructure, education, health, and even direct financial assistance to the poor and other vulnerable sectors,” the Leyte 1st district congressman stressed.

Thus, House members would like to see increased allocations for these services and pro-poor programs, he added.

Next week, the appropriations panel will switch its gears to hear the individual budget proposals of the different departments and agencies in government--easily the most grueling phase of the budget process.

“I have clear marching orders from the Speaker: make sure that the budget fully supports the Marcos administration’s 8-point socioeconomic agenda through sound fiscal management,” Co said on Tuesday.

The NEP, which emanates from Malacañang via the DBM, serves as the precursor to the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), or proposed national budget. The Co panel will file the GAB in a few weeks' time, based on its per agency budget hearings.

The P5.768-trillion budget is the biggest ever asked by the executive branch from Congress (House of Representatives and Senate).

Of the two chambers of Congress, it is the House that has the power of the purse. It gets first crack at the budget measure, which is considered the most importance piece of legislation at any given year.

Co urged the committee to swiftly deliberate on the NEP. "Let us also look ahead with renewed optimism and enthusiasm as we again give our full support to the immediate consideration and passage of the P5.768-trillion FY (fiscal year) 2024 proposed budget submitted by the President to Congress last Aug. 2, 2023," he said.

The panel is eyeing the plenary debates on the budget to start on then third week of September.