SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certified as urgent the 2024 spending plan of the national government, allowing the House of Representatives to shift into overdrive to speed up the passage of the budget proposal.
“[This] is in order to address the need to maintain continuous government operations following the end of the current fiscal year, to expedite the funding of various programs, projects, and activities for FY 2024, and to ensure budgetary preparedness that will enable the government to effectively perform its constitutional mandate,” Marcos said in his letter to House Speaker Martin Romualdez dated Wednesday, September 20.
The certification enables the House to pass the General Appropriations Bill – House Bill No. 8980 – on second and third reading on the same day.
Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel criticized the certification as “self-serving.”
“This forces the House to skip discussion of crucial amendments and approve the budget on third and final reading right away,” he said.
The Constitution states that a bill can only be passed when it undergoes three readings on separate days, except when the president “certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to meet a public calamity or emergency.”
The House is set to take a month-long congressional break for the whole month of October, and the chamber aims to pass the spending plan on or before the last day of plenary session on September 29.
Plenary debates on the proposed 2024 budget began on Tuesday, September 19, with the issue of confidential funds – which are difficult to audit – taking front and center.
The Marcos administration is seeking a P5.768-trillion budget for 2024, up by 9.5% compared to this year’s P5.268-trillion budget.
A total of P10.1 billion from that proposal are for intelligence and confidential funds. – Rappler.com
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President Marcos Jr. uses maintenance of continuous government operations (it is still September by the way), expedite funding of various programs, projects and activities (same time frame: too early for 2024) and ensure budgetary preparedness (the ongoing plenary sessions in the House can attest to this) as justifications in his certification that the proposed 2024 budget be considered as urgent. At this moment, none of these justifications can be considered either as “public calamity” or “emergency.” But perhaps he just wanted to avoid lengthy discussions which may allow the Filipino People to know more about how the 2024 budget will be used by the Marcos Jr. administration. (Query: Does he have many things to hide about the said budget?)