This annual Bicameral Conference Committee on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is not a mere ritual. It is an important and crucial legislative undertaking. What we are going to forge will 1) provide the budgetary anchor for government operations; 2) propel the implementation of priority programs and projects; and 3) define the parameters and directions of national policies with funding support.

The General Appropriations Bill is one of the legislative measures wherein both the majority and the minority have indispensable stakes. Moreover, the House of Representatives and the Senate may differ in figures but we agree on the need, essence and import of seasonably enacting the Annual General Appropriations Act.

This year, both Chambers have viewed and assessed the annual budget with shared commonalities, like the following:

1. We have both maintained the budgetary ceiling recommended in the Executive’s National Expenditure Program of P1.227-trillion. This is recognition that no budget is that huge for the increasing needs and growing expectations of our people;
2. While we have excised certain allocations, we have realigned the cuts principally to augment basic services like education, health,  agriculture and infrastructure; and
3. For the first time since 1999, we have cut debt service particularly on interest payments, the budget for which we have included in the new appropriations to have control over this outlay.

Hopefully we can agree not only in realigning to social services the savings on debt service as a consequence to the continuing appreciation of the Peso vis-à-vis the US Dollar but more on truly genuine cuts on or the suspension of interest payments for loans which are challenged as fraudulent, tainted and/or useless pending their renegotiation or condonation.

We must also expunge from the budget the Executive’s premature allocations of about P5-billion for interest payments for projected program loans still in the pipeline. We must not immobilize precious funds which cannot be utilized during the fiscal year.

Finally, I am certain that there are no differences which we cannot resolve and gaps we cannot bridge.

Thank you.