House to approve 2019 nat’l budget on November 28 – panel exec

The House of Representatives will pass on final reading the Duterte administration’s P3.757-trillion budget for 2019 on November 28, House appropriations panel Senior Vice Chairman Maria Carmen Zamora said Monday.

Zamora also said the committee is currently on its final stages of amending the proposed general appropriations for next year.

“We’re at the final stages of reconciling differences and amendments to the budget, and after that, we need to get the budget printed. Our target for third reading is November 28 and we expect plenary approval by then,” she said in a text message to reporters.

Both House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. had already assured that Congress could pass the 2019 budget on time, dismissing any possibility of a reenacted budget for the next fiscal year.

READ: P3.76-T nat’l budget will be approved on time, House assures Senate

Arroyo, meanwhile, said it is time to focus on helping the executive department on the implementation of measures, now that the chamber had already passed most of President Rodrigo Duterte’s legislative agenda.

“Since most of the priority bills of President Duterte (are) already in the final stages, we have to start moving on the oversight function so that the implementation can be attended to and we would like to help the executive department to focus and to see what are the problems about the implementation,” the Pampanga congresswoman said in an interview.  /kga