Senate ratifies P5.768T budget bill for 2024

The Senate ratified Monday the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) which contains the P5.768-trillion proposed budget for 2024.

This came hours after the bicameral conference committee approved and adopted the report on the disagreeing provisions of the Senate and House of Representatives’ version of the budget bill.

Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara sponsored the bicameral conference committee report where he highlighted the significant increase in the budget of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Under the final version of the budget, the DND and the AFP’s budget increased by P8.422 billion, giving them a total of P238.357 billion for next year.

Prior to the ratification of the 2024 GAB, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III manifested his concerns over the final version of the bill and eventually voted against it.

The minority chief questioned the increase of unprogrammed funds from P281.9 billion as proposed in the National Expenditures Program (NEP) to P731.4 billion in the final version of the GAB.

According to Angara, the unprogrammed funds increased to “carve out” fiscal space in the programmed appropriation for other items that are proposed by the lawmakers in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Pimentel also questioned the increase of the budget of the House of Representatives under the bicameral conference committee report which he said seems to become a “practice.”

“Pagkatapos po ng bicam, ang laki ng increase ng budget ng House of Representatives.  Another increase of P12.5 billion. Ganito rin last year ang nangyari. Siguro, we have to improve our budgeting system,” he said.

“If this is the actual need of the House, sana from the very start, sa GAB pa lang, na-reflect na po ‘yon. So that when we discuss the budget amounts, ‘yun na ‘yung amounts na nasa isip natin. Just a suggestion as much as possible to improve the transparency of our budget process,” he said.

Angara acknowledged the concern of Pimentel and mentioned that there are “budgets for 29 congressmen” which were not included in the budget proposal of the House of Representatives.

He said this could be discussed with the Department of Budget and Management.

Once the final version of the 2024 GAB is ratified by the House of Representatives, the budget bill will be sent to Malacanang for the President’s review and approval or veto.—AOL, GMA Integrated News