THE approval of the P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget will be the top priority of the House of Representatives in the next session of Congress, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said Wednesday.
The leader of the 300-plus-strong House made the statements a day after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. approved the P6.325-trillion budget proposal for next year.
“Aside from our commitment in approving the few remaining LEDAC priority measures (agreed upon during its 5th full council meeting June 25), the House will again work doubly hard to pass the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) before we go on break this end of September 2024,” Romualdez said.
“We will then transmit the GAB to the Senate for its consideration,” he said.
As he has promised, he said the House would ensure enough funding for education, agriculture, the modernization and welfare programs of the armed forces, infrastructure, and the legacy projects of President Marcos, among other priorities for budget allocation.
He said education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, and defense have to be supported as well to make food products accessible and affordable and accelerate the country’s development in an environment of peace and stability.
“We have to continue building roads, highways, ports, school buildings, climate change-proof structures, and similar infrastructure to maintain and expand economic growth. Progress has to reach the remotest communities,” he stressed.
The next session of the 19th Congress will open in the morning of July 22. In the afternoon, the President will deliver his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City.
The Batasan was built during the administration of President Marcos’ father, the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.
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