Palace says no talk of reenacted budget for 2025

There has been no discussion about having a reenacted budget for fiscal year 2025, Malacañang said on Monday.

''In the past two meetings that I attended with them, there was never discussion on that (reenacted budget),'' Presidential Communications Office Acting Secretary Cesar Chavez told Palace reporters.

Section 25 (7), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution states that if by the end of any fiscal year Congress failed to pass the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for the ensuing year, the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the preceding year shall be deemed reenacted and shall remain in force and in effect until the GAB is passed by Congress.

Data from the Department of Budget and Management said fiscal years 2001, 2004, and 2006 all had reenacted budgets.

Chavez said President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. conferred with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the economic cluster, and the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways this morning while reviewing the proposed national budget for next year.

He added that the printed copy of the spending measure was received late Friday afternoon.

''President Marcos Jr. hopes to act on the measure before the year ends,'' Chavez said.

Marcos was supposed to sign the P6.352 trillion national budget plan for next year last December 20. However, Bersamin said it did not push through to allow for more time for a rigorous and exhaustive review of the measure.

Bersamin had said that Marcos was consulting with the heads of major departments for the budget.

Under the Constitution, the President could veto provisions of the budget bill.

The Senate and the House of Representatives earlier ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the GAB, which retained the P733 million budget of the Office of the Vice President; reduced the budget of the Department of Education by P10 billion; and allocated P26 billion for the Ayuda para sa Kapos and Kita Program (AKAP).

Marcos vowed that the national budget plan for next year would be signed into law before the end of 2024. — KG/RSJ, GMA Integrated News