House sends to Senate final nat’l budget bill
THE House-approved 2022 General Appropriations Bill has been transmitted to the Senate.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget is on track to enactment before the year ends.
“In line with our commitment to ensure the timely enactment of next year’s national budget, we have transmitted to the Senate the 2022 GAB duly approved by the House ahead of schedule,” Velasco said in a statement.
“In doing so, we hope to give our senators reasonable time to scrutinize and pass their own version of the GAB as we look forward to the bicameral conference where we can thresh out and reconcile the differing provisions of the House and Senate versions,” he added.
Velasco is confident that Congress is on schedule to send the all-important budget measure to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for his signature by December this year.
As the economy gradually moves toward full reopening, Velasco said he was “extremely hopeful that the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget will help propel the Philippine economy to a strong recovery starting 2022.”
The House leader assured the public that there will be no reenacted budget at the start of 2022.
“We cannot afford a reenacted budget, which is expected to dampen the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. A reenacted budget will definitely ruin our efforts to build back better and deliver much-needed services for our kababayans amid the pandemic,” he pointed out.
