House passes budget bill, keeps P1.3 billion cut for OVP

MANILA, Philippines — After two weeks of plenary debates, the House of Representatives terminated last night budget deliberations of agencies, including the Office of the Vice President (OVP), after President Marcos certified the 2025 national budget bill as urgent. 

Voting 285-3, the House approved on third and final reading House Bill 10800, or the General Appropriations Bill, which is the P6.352-trillion spending measure for the next fiscal year.

The House leadership, after holding a caucus with the supermajority coalition of power blocs in the chamber, decided to keep the P733-million reduced budget for the OVP, which is P1.29 billion lower than Vice President Sara Duterte’s proposed P2-billion allocation.

“It is important for the OVP to still have a budget to be able to continue serving our countrymen,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said, rejecting calls from many of his colleagues to either reduce this further, or make it zero, if only to punish Duterte for disrespecting lawmakers.

The President’s certification of the measure as urgent expedites the process, allowing both second and third reading to be done successively on the same session day.

It usually takes three calendar days before a bill hurdles third and final reading.

In a letter sent to Romualdez, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, on behalf of Marcos, informed the lower chamber that the Chief Executive is “certifying to the necessity of the immediate enactment of HB 10800.”

“This is entitled: An act appropriating funds for the operation of the government of the Republic of the Philippines from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 (2025) pursuant to provisions of Article 6, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution,” Bersamin stated in the letter.

In a statement, Romualdez emphasized the importance of keeping the OVP funded to ensure that services provided by the office continue uninterrupted and to safeguard the jobs of its employees.

This was the consensus arrived at by leaders of political parties under the supermajority coalition, among which are Lakas-CMD which the Speaker heads, Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Unity Party and Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc.

The House appropriations committee led by Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co previously approved the P733-million allocation, which closely mirrors the budget allocated to former vice president Leni Robredo. The budget includes P30 million to account for inflation.

Despite Duterte’s absences during budget hearings, Romualdez insisted that the OVP’s continued operation is critical, adding the role of her office in endorsing requests for assistance to agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Health to ensure transparency and prevent any misuse of funds.

Approval before Christmas

Earlier yesterday, Marcos expressed hope that the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget for next year will be approved before Christmas.

In a Facebook post, Marcos underscored the importance of the spending bill, saying it would fund “crucial projects” designed to “uplift the lives of all Filipinos.”

“I commend both houses of the 19th Congress for their display of unity in collaborating and pushing our key priority bills forward. I am counting on your continued support in passing the 2025 national budget, with our agenda for prosperity in mind, before Christmas,” he said.

The spending bill and other priority measures of the Marcos administration were discussed during the sixth full meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) yesterday at Malacañang.

Congressional leaders vowed to ensure the timely passage of the proposed budget for next year so that Marcos can sign it into law by yearend.

The Senate is waiting for the approved version of the budget from the House of Representatives so that senators could start plenary discussions on the measure, according to President Francis Escudero.

“For now, the committee hearings in the Senate are on schedule and we expect (the budget) to be approved while the President has enough time to read and review it, in relation to the line veto that he may exercise in the proposed budget, so it can become a law before the end of the year,” Escudero said at a press briefing in Malacañang.

He added that the Senate has entered into a government-to-government deal with the Philippine International Convention Center so that the chamber could get additional rooms for its hearings.

“We were able to add or get five rooms because we only have six in the Senate to enable members sharing various committees to do their respective hearings without affecting the budget process that we are currently undertaking,” the Senate President said when asked how the chamber can ensure the timely passage of the budget given its upcoming inquiries on various issues.

“Has (the budget) ever not been passed by the Senate on time, regardless of which year? It has always been passed by the Senate in time before we go on recess,” he said.

Speaker Romualdez said the goal is for the 2025 budget to be enacted before Christmas.

“The certification of urgency allows us to similarly pass it within short order today (Sept. 25) on third reading,” he said.

Escudero and Romualdez reported that five priority measures have been passed into law: the New Government Procurement Act, Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act which will be signed into law today and the Value Added Tax on Digital Services Act set to be enacted in October, according to a Facebook post by Radio Television Malacañang.

The RTVM post quoted Romualdez as saying that five more priority measures would be passed by December: the amendments to the Foreign Investor’s Long-term Lease law, amendments to the Agrarian Reform law, amendments to the Universal Health Care law, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and the new Department of Water bill.

Escudero said lawmakers expect five more priority bills to be finished before the Christmas break.

“When we resume, we expect to be able to pass on the part of the Senate about three to five more of these measures, totaling, therefore, an additional 13 before we go on formal break and end the 19th Congress,” he added.

The Senate President also cited the need to pass the bills extending the IBC 13 charter and renewing the charters of the National Housing Authority and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., all of which will lapse next year.

Romualdez said the House has accomplished all but two priority measures.

“We are confident that before the year ends, we shall have finished all by December or six months in advance,” he added.

Marcos also sought the passage of the waste-to-energy bill and the bill creating the Department of Water Resources during the LEDAC meeting.

He called on lawmakers to look at the waste-to-energy bill “in a more urgent sense” because it is an important part of the flood control program.

“I think waste-to-energy now has taken on a new role. It is no longer just for garbage, or waste disposal or waste management.  It is also now very much part of the flood control effort,” he said.

With regard to the measure creating the water department, the Chief Executive said efforts should be directed to water because of the “exigencies” of climate change

OPAPRU budget

Presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. yesterday thanked yesterday the House of Representatives for approving the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU)’s P7.095-billion budget for 2025.

“The approval of our agency’s budget is a validation that the national government’s peace agenda is on the right track and continues to gain momentum. Moreover, it is a vote of confidence in our peace-building efforts,” Galvez said.

He added that the 2025 budget is an investment for peace, which is crucial in sustaining the transformation of former combatants, their families and communities and ensuring the implementation of all signed peace agreements.

“We are determined to maximize every centavo of this allocation to ensure the consistent implementation of the country’s comprehensive peace process,” Galvez said, thanking Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, who serves as vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, for sponsoring and defending the OPAPRU’s proposed budget.

Adiong said the OPAPRU’s budget is not merely a financial allocation, as it represents the government’s commitment to addressing the root causes of armed conflict.

Galvez said P5.3 billion of the newly approved 2025 OPAPRU budget shall cover critical PAMANA projects to sustain the momentum of what have been started this year.

He added that PAMANA projects account for over 74 percent of OPAPRU’s 2025 National Expenditure Program for 2025.

The breakdown of OPAPRU’s budget for its other peace tables includes P1.4 billion for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, P600 million for the Moro National Liberation Front, P1 billion for the local peace engagements and Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front, P550 million for the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Bongcayao Brigade and P570 million for the Cordillera Bodong Administration-Cordillera People’s Liberation Army. –  Alexis Romero, Jose Rodel Clapanobae