Marcos OKs P6.35 trillion national budget for 2025

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos yesterday approved the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget for next year, designed to keep the country on track toward sustainable and inclusive growth.

With the President’s approval, the budget program is now ready for submission to Congress following his third State of the Nation Address on July 22.

The spending program supports the government’s priority areas, namely food security, social protection, health care, housing, disaster resilience, infrastructure, digital connectivity and energization and the key pillars of the administration’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.

Among the sectors and agencies with the biggest allocations are education, which covers the Department of Education, state universities and colleges and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; Department of Public Works and Highways; health, which covers Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.; Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense.

Other government priorities under the expenditure program are the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Agriculture and attached corporations, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Transportation, the judiciary and justice.

The proposed 2025 national budget was presented by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman during the 17th Cabinet meeting yesterday at Malacañang,

“Since I’ve seen it before on the macro level, I think the priorities in terms of our proposed appropriations, upon addressing it, weighted our priorities properly in terms of appropriations,” Marcos was quoted in a Palace statement as saying.

The proposed budget for 2025 is 10.1 percent higher than this year’s outlay of P5.768 trillion. It is also equivalent to 22 percent of the gross domestic product, as determined during last week’s Development Budget Coordination Committee meeting.

Carrying the theme “Agenda for prosperity: Fulfilling the needs and aspirations of the Filipino people,” the proposed outlay aims “to continue fostering economic and social transformation for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient future,” the budget department said.

“We have crafted this carefully and meticulously to ensure that we stay on track with our economic growth targets while ensuring no one is left behind,” Pangandaman said in a statement.