Senate wraps up plenary debates on 2025 nat’l budget

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate early Wednesday morning finished its marathon plenary deliberations on the proposed 2025 national budget.

The chamber’s plenary session lasted for 13 hours, ending exactly at 3:52 a.m.

On the last day of the deliberations, senators tackled the proposed funds of the following agencies:

• Department of Social Welfare and Development
• Department of Trade and Industry
• Department of Information and Technology
• Department of Public Works and Highways
• Department of Health
• State Universities and Colleges
• Budgetary Support to Government Corporations – Southern Philippines Development Authority
• Commission on Higher Education
• Other executive offices

Among the highlights of the two-week plenary deliberations include the Senate’s retention of the proposed P733-million budget of the Office of the Vice President as approved by the House of Representatives in its 2025 General Appropriations Bill.

READ: House poised to pass P6.352-T budget this week

READ: Senate subpanel deletes House’s P50B lump sum hikes for NIA

The upper chamber likewise recommended the deletion of the controversial Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program in the 2025 national funding.

Apart from these, senators have likewise agreed to remove more than P50 billion worth of “lump sum increases” in the proposed funding for the National Irrigation Administration for 2025.

Earlier, Senate President Chiz Escudero said they need to transmit the consolidated measure on the 2025 funding to the Palace for the President’s approval before the Senate once again goes on break.

“We are expecting that the budget will get approved—at the latest the second week of December [or] at the earliest, the first week of December,” he told reporters then.

The proposed 2025 national budget is 10.1 percent higher than the current national budget of P5.768 trillion, as the Department of Budget and Management had also earlier projected.