Press Release
November 6, 2022

Senate resumes session

The First Regular Session of the 19th Congress will resume its session Monday, November 7, 2022, with the senators' hands full for the plenary deliberations on the proposed 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" F. Zubiri said he expects approval of the P5.268 trillion national budget on the third week of this month.

Zubiri said Finance Chairperson Sen. Sonny Angara will be sponsoring the committee report upon the opening of the session and "we will go straight to the budget deliberations in the plenary." There will be morning and afternoon sessions to finish the deliberations until the second and third reading approval of the proposed budget measure, he said.

"With the hard work and commitment of all our fellow senators, we expect to have two weeks of marathon plenary deliberations, and hopefully we can have it approved on third reading in the Senate as early as the third week of November," the Senate leader said, adding that the Senate is fully on track with the budget schedule that have been laid out.

He said the sub-committees "carefully combed over our agencies' programs and spending" even after the session adjourned last October 1 "to ensure that the 4.9 percent increase from this year's budget is warranted, and is crucial to the country's continued recovery from the pandemic."

"I am grateful to all our hardworking senators for ably steering their respective sub-committees, and for keeping us on track with our budget timeline. With everyone keeping the same work ethic and urgency to the plenary, we expect to spend about two weeks in marathon plenary deliberations, and we will hopefully be able to approve the budget as early as the third week of November," he said.

Zubiri foresees the latest time to get the budget approved by the bicameral conference committee in the second week of December.

News Latest News Feed