MANILA, Philippines — The Senate formally received on Thursday a copy of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) from the House of Representatives.
The 2025 GAB, which contains the proposed national budget for next year, was submitted by a House personnel to the Senate’s Legislative Bills and Index Service staff.
The submission was carried out despite the cancellation of work in both chambers of Congress in light of the inclement weather brought about by severe tropical storm Kristine (international name: Trami).
Earlier, Senate President Chiz Escudero said he sees the approval of the 2025 GAB by the first or second week of December.
He said the chamber is on track to finish the committee deliberations of some agencies’ budgets, based on his discussion with Sen. Grace Poe, who heads the Senate finance committee.
The proposed 2025 national budget amounts to P6.352-trillion.
The figure is a 10.1 percent increase from the current national budget of P5.768 trillion, as the Department of Budget and Management had also earlier projected.