MANILA, Dec 16 (NNN-PNA) -- With the approval of the congressional bicameral conference committee on the proposed P1.54 trillion Philippines national budget for 2010, Speaker Prospero Nograles on Wednesday said the House of Representatives is set to ratify it before Congress adjourns session for the Christmas break.

Nograles, in a chance interview, said ratification of the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2010 may be done on or before Friday (Dec. 18).

He said the bicameral conference committee still need to meet on Thursday to fine tune the wordings of its report before it is transmitted for ratification to the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In the approved draft report of the 2010 GAA, instead of the proposed P1.126-billion slash in the budget of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the bicam committee agreed to restore the P1 billion capital outlay but P300 million of its budget would be realigned to the pensions of police and military.

On the Senate's proposal to cut the budget of the Supreme Court by P162 million, the committee agreed instead to restore half of the amount.

The bicam committee also maintained the P25 billion debt cut proposal of the House.

The departments with highest budget allocation were the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) with P117.3- billion; followed by Interior and Local Government (DILG) with P65.3-billion; National Defense (DND) with P57.6-billion; Agriculture (DA) with P38-billion; Health (DOH) with P28-billion; state and universities and colleges (SUCs) with P22.3-billion; Agrarian Reform (DAR) with P19-billion; Transportation and Communications (DOTC) with P16.4-billion; and Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with P14 billion.

Approved amendments in the Senate version of the proposed 2010 GAA include the additional P1.2-billion allotted for the implementation of the Clean Air and Solid Waste Management Act, setting aside P100 million for the newly-created Climate Change Commission.

The Department of Education (DepEd), which has the biggest budget amounting to P162.1-billion, got additional P162 million to boost the education programs of the government.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) also received additional P100-million.

A total of P100 million has also been approved for the equipment modernization of government television station NBN Channel 4. -- NNN-PNA