Senate, House agree to ‘open bicam’ to reconcile 2025 national budget

Sen. Grace Poe during one of the Senate deliberations (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the conference committee tasked to reconcile conflicting provisions of the 2025 national budget have agreed to conduct an “open bicam” to discuss in public the changes they have made, Sen. Grace Poe confirmed on Monday.

Poe, who chairs the Senate panel on finance, said both the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to make such a change in the budget process.

“We both agreed,” she told reporters in a text message to reporters.

But what does an open bicam mean? Would it mean that legislators would openly discuss the contentious budget of the Office of the Vice President or the controversial Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program?

“Yes. Our colleagues are welcome to ask in the open,” said Poe.

The Bicameral Conference Committee comprising lawmakers from the House of Representatives and the Senate first convened on November 28 to reconcile conflicting provisions of House Bill No. 10800, otherwise known as the 2025 General Appropriations Bill.

Unlike previous years, this year’s meeting was held at Sheraton Hotel in Pasay City.

During the meeting, a technical working group was formed and tasked to discuss and reconcile provisions of the 2025 budget bill.

At the center stage of the bicam discussions is the budget of the OVP which was slashed by both chambers of Congress by P1.293159 billion.

Apart from this, a controversial provision in the 2025 budget bill is the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), enveloped in which is a whopping P39 billion insertion made by the lower chamber and in return was removed by the Senate.

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

Priorities for the measure include the following: social services, health, education, jobs, technology, and infrastructure and human development.