Palace confident House can pass PHP4.5T 2021 nat'l budget by Oct. 16

Malacañang is confident that the House of Representatives will pass the PHP4.5 trillion 2021 national budget by October 16.

Speaker Lord Allan Velasco reopened debates on Tuesday and has reconciled with former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, allowing deliberations to proceed.

Lawmakers are set to deliberate on at least 15 more agencies' budgets from Wednesday onwards, aiming to conclude discussions by Friday as per President Duterte's call for a special session.

Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado hopes the House will pass the budget on October 16, now that the leadership issue is resolved.

Rep. Eric Yap plans to meet with Cayetano on Monday to discuss next steps in the budget deliberations.