THE House of Representatives would likely pass the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget by Friday, September 20, Albay Representative Joey Salceda said.

Salceda, chairman of the House ways and means committee guaranteed Wednesday, September 18, the early passage of the proposed budget spending for 2020, as he noted that there were no insertions in the House version of the budget bill.

He stressed that no insertions were made in the budget proposal, "except for a few words, not a single comma, decimal, semi-colon is changed."

"Walang insertions (There are no insertions). What you see is what you get. What we got is what we will give," the lawmaker said in a press briefing, referring to the proposed 2020 budget.

"So the 2020 budget, I'm sure, will be approved by September 20, the earliest approved budget at the House in history," he added.

In August, Malacañang expressed optimism over the timely passage of the proposed national budget for next year so as to avoid a repeat of the delayed approval of this year's budget spending that caused the economy to slow down.

The national government operated on a reenacted 2018 budget from January until the 2019 budget was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 15.

Salceda said that the "Duterte Super Coalition" at the House of Representatives was working to ensure that the proposed 2020 budget would be passed on time.

He said the House solons were expecting that the "super majority" in the Senate would also exhaust efforts to approve the budget bill.

He was also hopeful that Senate would not introduce "institutional amendments" in its version of the proposed 2020 budget.

"Well, I'm imposing it as a challenge to teh Senate. We don't have individual amendments. They should not have institutional amendments," Salceda said. (SunStar Philippines)