00:00Deliberations in Congress for the proposed 6.739 trillion peso national budget for next year
00:07have reached the home stretch as select members from both houses are poised to engage
00:12in the bicameral conference discussion set for this weekend.
00:16And all of its members know full well they are under nation's watchful eye
00:20who will scrutinize their every move in real time from start to finish
00:24and expect them to get it right and on time.
00:27Our Luis Ayripa gets us up to speed in this report.
00:33The Senate session has been extended to December 23 this year.
00:38This is to give way to the ratification of the national budget for 2026.
00:42According to Senate President Vicente Soto III,
00:45the adjustment on the schedule is aimed at ensuring enough time
00:49for the deliberations of the bicameral confidence committee on the budget.
00:53The holding of the bicam was also adjusted from December 11 to 12 until December 14.
00:59The bicameral conference committee will be finished, hopefully will be done by 13, 14, 14, 15.
01:10Gano'n ang target eh. 14 or the 15th, napatapos yung bicam.
01:15Kasama Saturday, Sunday. Wala, hindi pa tatawarin yung Saturday, Sunday.
01:19So, mauuso ngayon. Then, mayroong seven days to print, tapat, yung enrolled copy.
01:26At ang tansya namin, 22.
01:28One of the key points why the Congress needed an extension
01:31is because they plan to ratify during the bicam an enrolled bill rather than a summary.
01:37This is to ensure that there will be no insertions on the budget.
01:40I and we, you know, and the President agrees with me
01:46that we will not approve a bicameral confidence committee report na summary.
01:55Ayaw namin nun.
01:57Dahil doon pwedeng magkaroon ng milagro after all.
02:03So, what we will ratify is the enrolled copy ready.
02:07Hindi ka tulad nun dati. Bye-bye, Cam. Bukas darating yung chairman.
02:12The innovation, you know, this year is that we will ratify an enrolled copy.
02:20Yung ready na ng signature ng Presidente.
02:23Senate President Soto said, as of now, there are no salons pushing for any form of insertions.
02:28But if there will be, Senate President Soto said they will not allow any kind of insertions.
02:33Their priority is to maintain the largest allocations to education, health, and the economy.
02:39Hindi ko papayagad. Wala naman so far. Medyo alam naman nila siguro hindi talaga ako papayagad.
02:44That is the reason why we want an enrolled bill to ratify and not a summary.
02:51Dahil pag summary tapos magpiprinting, ay nako.
02:54It has happened before.
02:55Masa sa amin, priority, DepEd, education, health, agriculture, sapagkat ang food security at ekonomiya nakasalagay dyan.
03:06Yun ang priority na Senate.
03:08The Senate also insists that there should be an open BICAM or live streaming of the deliberations.
03:14Senators that will be part of the BICAM included are Senator Sherwin Gatchalian as chairperson.
03:20Deputy Majority Leader will be Senator J.V. Ejercito.
03:23While the members are Sen. Loren Legarda, Sen. Francis Panghilinan, Sen. Mark Villar, Sen. Pia Cayetano, Sen. Erwin Tulfo, Sen. Camille Villar, Sen. Jingoy Estrada, Sen. Christopher Bongo, Sen. Aimee Marquez, and Sen. Ronald Bato de la Rosa.
03:40According to SP Soto, Bato may attend the BICAM.
03:44But Sen. Jingoy has already withdrawn as a member of the BICAM.
03:48It's up to him kung atin siya o hindi. Pero si Sen. Jingoy, mukhang hindi siya makakatin, so nagsabi na siya na mag-withdraw siya.
03:55Meanwhile, for Sen. Kiko Panghilinan, he believes the Senate version of the 2026 national budget is transparent and clean of corruption.
04:04He suggests that this could be adopted by the BICAM.
04:07Nire-respeto natin yung prerogative ng House. But sana, we are able to fast track this.
04:18And di naman natin pipilitin that they adopt a reversion. Biro lang naman yun. But that could be one way of speeding it up.
04:26Luisa Erispe from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
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