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Marcos signs 2025 national budget, makes last-minute cuts

Cristina Chi - Philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:26 p.m.) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the P6.326-trillion budget for 2025 on Monday, December 30, making an eleventh-hour decision to veto P194 billion worth of items he deemed "not consistent with our programmed priorities."

Unlike his previous budget signings which were done at least 10 days before year-end, Marcos delayed the approval by 10 days and signed the 2025 General Appropriations Act on December 30. He had postponed it to conduct "an exhaustive and thorough review" of the spending plan Congress ratified on December 11.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin had telegraphed the president's intent days earlier, warning of incoming vetoes "in the interest of public welfare" and "in compliance with laws."

"After an exhaustive and thorough review, we identified P194 billion worth of line items that are not consistent with our programmed priorities," Marcos said during the signing ceremony in Malacañang.

The president earlier faced pressure to veto the entire budget over controversial allocations, including the P26-billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) which critics, including retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, likened to pork barrel. 

The Department of Education also lost P10 billion from its computerization program during the congressional deliberations, while funds for the subsidy of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) were gutted altogether. 

However, Marcos saw no need to return the entire budget bill to Congress, which is dominated by his allies. "A re-enacted budget will set us back, delay our vital programs, jeopardize targets for economic growth, including our goals of achieving single-digit poverty levels and upper-middle income status," Marcos said.  

Instead of a total veto, Marcos wielded his veto power on P194 billion worth of allocations. The biggest slash came from unprogrammed appropriations at P168.24 billion, while P26.065 billion was cut from Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects.   

In a press conference, DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan said that the vetoed public works projects were dropped for not being aligned with the administration's priorities. 

"Many of these projects need to be scrutinized and are not ready for implementation at this point in time," he said, adding that most were "local projects."

Meanwhile, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman explained that unprogrammed appropriations — items in the budget without specific allocated funds — had ballooned during congressional deliberations from P178 billion to almost 10% of the total budget after the bicameral conference committee's approval. 

The vetoes brought these down to 4.7%, closer to the 5% standard recommended by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Pangandaman said in a press conference following the signing ceremony.

"Generally, contingent funds should be just five percent of the total budget," she added.

The president also announced that certain budget items would be subject to conditional implementation to ensure proper fund utilization. This includes the AKAP program, which will now be implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment and the National Economic Development Authority. 

"This way, we ensure that its implementation will be strategic, leading to the long-term improvement of the lives of qualified beneficiaries while guarding against misuse and duplication and fragmented benefits," Marcos said.

Budget increases and new items will undergo "cash programming, applicable budget execution rules, and vetting and approval of the concerned offices," he added.

The president's move to slash unprogrammed appropriations in next year's budget follows scrutiny of his administration's own expansion of these standby funds. 

From a typical ceiling of P260 billion before his term, these funds swelled to P807 billion in 2023 — the first budget fully prepared under Marcos — and P731 billion in 2024.  

RELATED: Unprogrammed funds on the rise: Questions that hound the 2024 budget

Bersamin said he was confident that the final budget would survive any legal challenge in court. 

"We are confident, but we cannot prevent if there will be challenges that will be mounted by any quarter who might still find this present budget as approved worthy of the challenge... That is something that we cannot prevent," he said.

The new budget law, Republic Act 12116, takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

BUDGET

CONGRESS

DPWH

DSWD

MALACANANG

MARCOS

NATIONAL BUDGET 2025

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