House Committee on Metro Manila Dev’t set to discuss recent floodings in NCR, nearby provinces

Transcript

00:00The lower house is very much willing to multitask if need be,

00:04especially now that there is a need to finally determine the cause and come up with solutions

00:09to massive flooding while also being duty-bound to scrutinize the national budget to ensure the

00:14continuation of services and programs for Filipinos. Mela Lesmora says more.

00:22The House Committee on Metro Manila Development is set to discuss tomorrow

00:26the recent floodings in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. According to House Senior Deputy

00:31Speaker Aurelio Gonzalez, Jr., one of their priorities is to help the administration

00:36in crafting more reliable and efficient flood control measures.

00:56Next week, the lower house will commence deliberations on the proposed P6.352 trillion

01:15pesos national budget for 2025. House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipis said thanks to the

01:21early submission of the 2025 National Expenditure Program by the Executive Branch to Congress way

01:27ahead of schedule that they will be able to start the budget briefings early. On Monday,

01:32the Development Budget Coordinating Council or DBCC, which comprise of the administration's

01:38economic managers, will be the first to face the powerful House Appropriations Committee to

01:43explain how the NEP was formulated and where the funds will be sourced. The Department of Budget

01:49and Management, the Secretary of Finance and all other agencies which were tasked and mandated

01:58for the creation of the budget will be present. So we will not anymore delay things. Dalipis said

02:06they will focus on a swift but thorough passage of the proposed budget in line with the directive

02:11of House Speaker Martin Romualdez. Their target is to approve the budget plan before end September.

02:18Hopefully, we can do the third or last week of September deadline. But I'm confident

02:26with the efficient work being done by the different vice chairmen of the Committee on

02:34Appropriation plus the active participation of the minority in the budget deliberations,

02:41we'll be able to come up with the House General Appropriations Bill by end of September.

02:49Under the 2025 national budget, the education sector is still the government's top priority.

02:55So even before the start of the budget deliberations, the Appropriations Committee

03:00had already discussed the budgetary performance of the Department of Education, which responded

03:05on the issue of the thousands of unfilled positions in various public schools in the country.

03:11They already started hiring as early as January while continuing appointments have been issued

03:18for items which require promotional appointments. And that's the reason why there were already 9%

03:26already issued appointment. But we will comply to submit our weekly monitoring and monthly

03:36report of the compliance since we issued that this should have been filled prior to

03:43the end of either the quarter two or three of this fiscal year.