Senate resumes plenary session with ‘hands full’ on proposed 2023 national budget

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate resumed its plenary session with “hands full” for the debates on the proposed P5.268-trillion 2023 national budget on Monday.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri is looking forward to approving the 2023 General Appropriations Bill in the third week of November.

“With the hard work and commitment of all our fellow senators, we expect to have two weeks of marathon plenary deliberations, and hopefully we can have it approved on the third reading in the Senate as early as the third week of November,” Zubiri said in a statement on Sunday.

He noted that morning and afternoon sessions will be held to finish budget discussions until final reading approval.

Zubiri added that subcommittees “carefully combed over our agencies’ programs and spending” even after the session adjourned last October 1 “to ensure that the 4.9 percent increase from this year’s budget is warranted, and is crucial to the country’s continued recovery from the pandemic.”

According to Zubiri, the latest time that the bicameral conference committee may approve the 2023 budget is in the second week of December.

Senator Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Senate finance committee, said that he will sponsor the panel report on the 2023 budget upon the resumption of the session.

The House of Representatives has approved the proposed 2023 budget on final reading.

JMS/abc