Senate begins marathon plenary debates for 2024 nat’l budget

Senate of the Philippines. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Wednesday started its marathon plenary deliberations on the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which proposes a P5.768 trillion budget for next year.

Senator Sonny Angara, who chairs the chamber’s committee on finance, delivered his speech sponsoring the general principles of the 2024 GAB on Tuesday, November 7. He is anticipated to open the session for the plenary debates on Wednesday.

Based on the tentative schedule for the marathon plenary discussions distributed to reporters, deliberations on the 2024 spending plan of the government will run until November 20.

READ: Senate gets House version of 2024 budget

The schedule also indicated that for November 8, senators are expected to scrutinize the proposed budgets of the Department of Budget and Management (P2.495 billion), Department of Finance (P32.4 billion), and National Economic and Development Authority (P12.21 billion) for next year.

Angara previously told reporters that the Senate aims to approve the 2024 GAB on or before November 27, while Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri assured them that they are committed to “pass [the bill] on time.”

Zubiri said the measure may be ready for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature “by the second week of December at the latest.”

READ: Angara: Proposed budget remains faithful to make PH middle-income nation

The proposed P5.768 trillion 2024 national budget is 9.5 percent higher than the previous year’s allocation.

In a sponsorship speech on Tuesday, Angara said next year’s financial plan is a testament to the administration’s “ideas” to encourage growth, reduce poverty, and “cement the country’s status as an upper middle-income nation,” among others.

Angara also noted that the general objective of the 2024 national budget is to pursue national prosperity through the administration’s eight-point socioeconomic agenda, which includes the following:

• Food Security
• Improved Transportation
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Health Care
• Education
• Social Services
• Sound Financial Management
• Bureaucratic Efficiency

READ: House approves on 2nd reading proposed P5.7 trillion budget for 2024