House Appropriations committee approves proposed 2027 budget

The House Committee on Appropriations has approved the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027.

"Hindi naman po unanimous yung vote. So merong mga nag-oppose din para sila ay puwede pang magtanong sa plenary," Appropriations Chair Representative Mikaela Suansing told reporters in an ambush interview.

(The vote was not unanimous. There were some who opposed and they may ask questions during the plenary.)

She also said the committee approved the proposed budget without amendments because the Budget Amendments Review Sub Committee (BARSC) has not yet been convened.

"Wala pong mga amyenda sa budget na hindi natin ide-deliberate nang bukas sa publiko [There are no amendmends to the budget that we will not deliberate publicly]. Given that the BARSC has not convened yet, the committee report, which was approved today, was approved with no amendments. Yung mga amyenda po, lahat po yan ay ating ipapasok sa HGAB [House of Representatives' General Appropriations Bill] kapag nakapag-convene na po ang BARSC," Suansing explained.

(We will add the amendments to the HGAB when BARSC has convened.)

Suansing said the BARSC may be convened later this week or early next week.

"The BARSC, as explained last year, ginagawa siya [it is done] concurrently throughout the budget season. In this case, the BARSC will convene, siguro po—I cannot give you a specific date—but it will convene sometime between the end of this week until early of this week," she stated.

Suansing added that the BARSC will be composed of more than 20 members from all parties, the Party-list Coalition, and the minority bloc.

The period of sponsorship and debates on the proposed national budget is scheduled to start at 12 noon tomorrow.

This early, she cited possible amendments to the proposed budget of the Department of Education, which did not receive any allocation for hiring new teachers and the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) program in 2027.

"Yung kawalan ng budget para sa pag-hire ng mga bagong guro o di kaya yung ARAL program and things like that. There are those items na ngayon pa lang, nakikita nating dapat tugunan sa pag-amyenda sa budget," Suansing said.

(The lack of budget for hiring new teachers or for the ARAL program, these are the things that we need to look at when mending the budget.)

She also mentioned that the Department of Agriculture is asking for assistance in fighting the effects of El Niño, such as fertilizer assistance and solar irrigation pumps. — BM, GMA News