Sen. Risa Hontiveros — Photo from Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday asked Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the finance panel, to ensure that no budget law would be higher than the Palace-approved National Expenditure Program (NEP).
At the Senate’s plenary session where the national budget for 2025 was being tackled, Hontiveros criticized the supposed doubling of the 2024 national budget law as compared to the NEP. She also said she would seek the passage of a measure that would prevent it in the future.
During her interpellations, Hontiveros said that in 2024, there were “concerning changes” in the country’s priority funding as “big funds” for important infrastructure projects were reallocated to hyperlocal projects that could be funded at a later time.
She pointed out this was very evident in the Philippine flood-control budget.
“Transferring funds from small but critical infrastructure like flood-control projects could result in lack of protection from flood in the future,” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
She then made an appeal directly addressed to Poe.
“Because this has been going on for a long time, maybe the sponsor and finance chair can take heed in creating a resolution — us here, in the Senate — and a general provision that would ensure that we would obey the principle that the GAA should not exceed the NEP,” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
She likewise made an appeal for a resolution and general provision that would ensure that the priorities of the government identified by the National Economic and Development Authority would no longer be placed under the category of unprogrammed funds.
Poe agreed with Hontiveros, saying that no GAA should be higher than the NEP.
READ: Senate plenary debates for P6.3 trillion proposed 2025 budget start