Senate, House agree to open bicam meeting on 2025 budget – Poe

Metro Manila, Philippines – The bicameral conference committee (bicam) on the 2025 national budget will hold a public meeting this time as agreed upon by lawmakers, Senator Grace Poe said Monday.

The committee – composed of senators and representatives – often receives flak for making significant changes to the spending plan behind closed doors as they haggle over the final amounts and items in the General Appropriations Bill.

“We both agreed,” Poe, who leads the Senate contingent to the bicam, said in a text message to reporters. “It will be open and we will be discussing several points.”

Contentious provisions in the proposed ₱6.532-trillion national budget are the allocations for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP) program, which aims to assist low-income Filipinos.

Both houses slashed the OVP budget by ₱1.3 billion, leaving it with only ₱733 million. Allies of Vice President Sara Duterte are appealing the cut.

Meanwhile, the House set aside ₱39 billion for AKAP, but senators defunded it and said that the funds should go to existing social assistance programs. They said the program was just inserted during last year’s bicam meeting and that its parameters remain unclear.

“Our colleagues are welcome to ask in the open,” Poe said when asked about the two controversial budget items.

She said the budget remains with the technical working group, while the bicam meeting is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 11.

The House and Senate will ratify the bicam report, and will be sent to Malacañang for the president's signature.

Earlier, the President’s sister, Senator Imee Marcos, called for greater transparency in the bicam, requesting that all vice chairpersons of the Senate finance committee be included in the panel and notified of amendments affecting the agencies they oversee.