The House of Representatives has established a streamlined 53-day timeline to review and pass the proposed ₱7.2-trillion national budget for 2027, utilizing the newly submitted National Expenditure Program (NEP) as its reference document.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, August 11, House Committee on Appropriations Chairperson and Nueva Ecija 1st District Representative Mika Suansing announced that committee discussions will launch on Monday, August 17, with a briefing from the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
The DBCC—comprising the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev, formerly NEDA), and the Office of the President (OP), alongside the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)—traditionally initiates the annual legislative budget hearings.
The timeline was established following the formal ceremonial turnover of the 2027 NEP by Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon to House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III.
”We’re looking at starting with the DBCC on Aug. 17…After that we’ll go through the committee hearings, the budget briefings and the budget hearings from Aug, 17 to around Sept. 8 po,” Suansing stated.
”And then thereafter, we will go through the plenary deliberations and we hope to…to finish the budget deliberations in the House, approve the HGAB on third reading by Oct. 9, which is the end of the legislative calendar,” she added.
The House General Appropriations Bill (HGAB) represents the chamber’s tailored version of the budget measure derived from the NEP.
Aligning with Speaker Dy, Suansing affirmed that the chamber will preserve the transparency measures introduced in 2025, including the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee (BARSc) and public consultations.
”We have enacted very important reforms this year, we will continue to execute this year,” Suansing emphasized. “The first one being the Budget Ammendments Review Subcommittee (BARSc)…We will do it simultaneously, concurrently with the budget deliberations, the committee hearings and the plenary deliberations.”
”After that, we will do another round of the People’s Budget Review, which we started last year. Yan po yung ating engagement kasama po yung iba’t ibang civil service organizations,” she noted.
Following its targeted third and final reading approval in the House, the GAB will move to the Senate for review.
Both legislative chambers will then reconcile their respective versions through a Bicameral Conference Committee before transmitting the final bill for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature ahead of year-end.