House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House of Representatives will prioritize the ratification of the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget for the rest of the year, although its various oversight hearings on different issues will also be a point t of focus. 

Majority Leader Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe laid out this road as the 300-plus strong legislative chamber prepared to resume its sessions on Monday, Nov. 4 after a six-week break. 

According to Dalipe, the House expects the other chamber of Congress---the Senate--to pass its version of the budget proposal soon so the two chambers could task a bicameral conference committee to come up with a common version of the outlay. 

“We hope to ratify the bicam report before our Dec. 20 Christmas break. There is enough time to approve the final version of the budget,” Dalipe said in a statement Sunday, Nov. 3 

The Mindanao lawmaker assured the nation that the proposed budget would be ready to be signed into law by President Marcos before the end of 2024. 

“As in the past, the spending program for the coming year will be in place before the current fiscal year is over to ensure continuity of spending and seamless implementation of activities and programs,” he added. 

Dalipe says the national budget--at this point known as the General Appropriations Bill (GAB)--is the single most important piece of legislation Congress passes each year. 

The House, led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, approved its version of the P6.352-trillion 2025 GAB--the biggest outlay in the country’s history--on third and final reading last Sept. 25. 

Quad-comm, confidential funds, quinta-comm 

Dalipe said the House would continue to exercise its oversight power through its various committees, including the quad-committee (quad-comm), the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, and the quinta-committee (quinta-comm) that was created before the recess in September. 

“We remain steadfast in protecting our people from abuses and in exposing acts of wrongdoing in government,” Dalipe said. 

He said the quad-comm will hold additional hearings on the bloody war on drugs of the previous Duterte administration and extrajudicial killings tied to it. Other topics to be tacklec include illegal Philippine Offshore and Gambling Operators (POGOs) and the drug menace. 

Former president Rodrigo Duterte has been penciled as a resource person for the next quad-comm hearing on Nov. 7. 

Dalipe said the good government panel--ofter referred to as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee of the House--would continue its inquiry into the alleged misuse of confidential funds under Vice President Sara Duterte. 

As for the quinta-comm--which is composed of five House panels--its mandate is to inquire into smuggling and price manipulation of basic goods and protect the public from unreasonable price increases, Dalipe said. 

Other priority measures 

The majority leader said on top of the proposed 2025 national budget, the House would work on passing the remaining measures on the LEDAC (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) priority list: 

He said the House has approved on third and final reading 26 of the 28 bills in the LEDAC list targeted for approval by the end of the term of the current 19th Congress on June 30, 2025. 

The remaining two LEDAC measures set for approval are the Amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law and Amendments to the Foreign Investors Long-Term Lease. 

In the 166 session days of the 19th Congress so far, Dalipe said the House has processed 4,504 measures, or an average of 27 per day. 

Of those measures, 103 have been enacted into law, he said.