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MANILA, Philippines — House Bill (HB) No. 10800, which contains the P6.352 trillion proposed budget for 2025, was approved by the House of Representatives on the third and final reading on Wednesday.
During the plenary session, 285 members voted in favor of HB No. 10800 or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), while three voted in the negative, and none abstained.
The approval on the third reading came just hours after the bill was approved on the second reading.
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The House was able to approve the GAB on the third and second reading on the same day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday certified HB No. 10800 as urgent.
Under the rules, a bill certified as urgent by a sitting president can be considered for third reading without observing the requirement of waiting for three session days after the second reading approval.
Earlier, the House adopted proposed amendments raised by the House committee on appropriations, including the reduction of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget to P733 million.
The OVP was originally allocated a P2.037 billion budget under the National Expenditures Program (NEP), but lawmakers from the panel proposed to slash this due to Duterte’s behavior and revelations that some OVP programs suffered from low budget utilization.
During the budget deliberations, it was also revealed that some OVP programs suffered from low utilization, like in the case of Magnegosyo Ta Day where only 0.04 percent of funds — P600,000 out of P150 million — as of December 2023 were used.