00:00And all is set for the House's preliminary deliberations on the 2026 National Expenditure Plan
00:05or proposed national budget after the final layout of the rules and guidelines in today's House Appropriations Organizational Meet.
00:13Among the salient points of the 2026 NEP that stuck out, funding for government's Rice for All program
00:20and a zero allocation for DSWD's ACAP assistance scheme, as our Mela Las Moras reports.
00:26The House of Representatives is set to kick off its deliberations on the proposed 2026 National Budget on Monday.
00:36During the organizational meeting of the House Committee on Appropriations,
00:39the panel approved the budget calendar as well as the rules and policies to be implemented in their hearings.
00:45On August 18, all systems go full blast. We start with the DBCC.
00:50And then after that, tuloy-tuloy na yan. We have daily committee hearings all the way through the week of September 16.
00:59So even Fridays of September, we have hearings every day.
01:03The only time that we are going to take a break is during the holidays.
01:07The creation of the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee has also been approved.
01:12For the first time, there will also be a People's Budget Review in the lower house,
01:16which will involve civil society organizations.
01:19Yung po yung kinumit ko na magkakaroon po ng engagement,
01:23yung Committee on Appropriations sa ating mga civil society organizations at people's organizations.
01:28Pwede nilang ilatag lahat po ng kanilang mga tanong at kanilang mga sugestion patungkol po sa ating budget.
01:35Yesterday, the House, headed by Speaker Martin Romualdez,
01:38provided civil society groups with a copy of the proposed 2026 National Budget.
01:43Speaker Romualdez said this is not just about documents as the budget is the lifeblood of the government.
01:49Therefore, to earn the public's trust, Filipinos must see and feel this budget is truly for them.
01:54Earlier, Budget Secretary Amina Pangandaman said that one of the main programs to be funded by the administration for 2026
02:01is the Rice for All program, which includes the Benteng Bigas Meron na Initiative.
02:06P10 billion pesos.
02:08Kasi it's a flagship program po under the Department of Agriculture, so National Rice Program.
02:17So meron pong 10 billion dyan for that and then nakapasok po kasi siya sa isang programa under that, which is Rice for All.
02:26And then meron 29 billion, almost 30 billion kasi yung sa RCEF, yung bagong batas po natin sa RCEF.
02:33As for the ayuda para sa kaposang kita program or ACAP, the DBM also explained why there is no allocation for it next year.
02:41Wala po yung ACAP sa budget ng DSWD for next year.
02:45May natitira pa pong pondo for 2025 and like I mentioned a while ago,
02:51we receive a total of 10 trillion pesos na proposal from agencies.
02:57And given our limited fiscal space, hindi pa po muna natin siya sinama.
03:04Melales Moras from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
