MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is set to submit the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022 to Congress on Aug. 23, the House appropriations committee head said.
Panel chairman Eric Yap said this would meet the Aug. 26 deadline of the Executive branch to submit the National Expenditure Program (NEP) as mandated under the 1987 Constitution.
The ACT-CIS and Benguet caretaker congressman said this would allow their panel to start the annual budget hearings and meet the House’s target of passing the budget before the October filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for next year’s elections.
Yap said that the chamber will be ready to start hearings when sessions resume after the two-week lockdown.
“Discussions may last two weeks because we need more time to scrutinize the budgets of agencies such as the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” Yap revealed.
Meanwhile, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said that Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado’s resignation will not delay the passage of the national budget, which is crucial to the government’s pandemic response.
“We wish to assure the public that this development will not affect the upcoming budget deliberations in Congress,” said the Marinduque congressman.
Velasco said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already submitted the 2022 NEP to the Palace ahead of Avisado’s resignation.
“We trust that the DBM led by its officer-in-charge, Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda, will carry on the task and continue its work on the 2022 NEP,” he said.
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