Fireworks on 2025 GAA begin

After much hullaballoo, the controversial 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) was signed into law at Malacañang Palace last Monday. Capped by the traditional signing ceremonies, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) affixed his signature to the voluminous books containing the P6.326-trillion national expenditure program (NEP). The newly signed 2025 GAA takes effect today.

Exercising the line-item veto powers of the President, a total of P194 billion worth of congressional “insertions” and re-alignments were removed from the Congress-approved budget law. The bulk of vetoed budget items were the P26 billion worth of public works projects and P168 billion worth of unprogrammed appropriations.

The P194-billion total vetoed budget items reduced the 2025 GAA to P6.326 trillion from the original total of P6.352-trillion.

Only Senate President Francis Escudero and Sen. Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate finance committee, attended for the Senate. As authors all of the 2025 budget law, the respective leaders and key members of the 19th Congress led by Speaker Martin Romualdez witnessed the signing rites.

Many of the lawmakers in attendance at the Palace rites were noticeably the same ones who took part in the bicameral conference committee (bicam). As the so-called “third Congress,” it was at the bicam of the 2025 GAA where the vetoed “insertions” and re-alignments took place.

After both chambers ratified the bicam’s consolidated versions of the Senate and the House 2025 GAA bill, former senator and now Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara publicly decried the slashing of P12 billion from his agency’s outlay. Then, it turned out the Philippine Health Insurance Corp, (PhilHealth) got zero subsidy for this year.

On the other hand, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) got more projects that were not even in the list of the President’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) for this year. The bonanza of realignments resulted in the P1.113-trillion DPWH budget. But after the presidential veto, the total DPWH budget for this year was cut down to P1.055 trillion.

The President also placed under “conditional implementation” 12 projects, including the P26-billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) this year. Started last year, the AKAP was inserted in the 2024 GAA also at the level of the bicam. Acting on the exposé of his sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, about the “special provision” providing for this new ayuda, the President required all AKAP allocations to be subject to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The AKAP seeks to protect minimum wage earners from the impact of rising commodity prices.

Unlike the 2024 AKAP version, this year’s ayuda source is divided and distributed, with the Senate getting a P5-billion allocation and P21 billion for the House. Under “conditional implementation,” the AKAP must be subjected to the convergence efforts of the social welfare and labor departments and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to improve the lives of beneficiaries while guarding against misuse, duplication and fragmented benefits, PBBM added.

PBBM delayed the signing of the Congress-approved 2025 GAA to review it. Assisted by his economic managers led by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, they were able to remove some of the “insertions” and realignments. The President noted allocations for certain programs and projects of the DPWH and several more projects under the unprogrammed appropriations increased by a whopping “300 percent.”

“We take our role as stewards of our taxpayers’ money seriously. And for this reason, after an exhaustive and thorough review, we have directly vetoed over P194 billion worth of the line items that are not consistent with our programmed priorities,” PBBM declared before the 2025 GAA authors in Congress as his captive audience.

“This approach is anchored on a simple yet profound truth: the appropriation of public funds must not break the public trust,” PBBM stressed. This was in obvious response to his critics and militant groups threatening to impeach the President for the alleged constitutional violations in having signed the 2025 GAA that did not give the bulk of the annual budget to the education sector.

Anti-administration groups vowed to question all the way to the Supreme Court (SC) the 2025 GAA for allegedly violating the Universal Health Act on the zero subsidy to PhilHealth.

While the President has line item veto powers over the budget under our country’s 1987 Constitution, however, the Chief Executive is not allowed to increase or restore budget items that Congress cut or removed from the GAA.

No worries though for both the DepEd and PhilHealth. If there is “excess revenues” collected, the DBM secretary explained, the Executive branch may tap into it to replenish DepEd and PhilHealth budgets when necessary. No less than Angara’s former Senate colleagues, led by Escudero, told him the DepEd has more than enough unused budget in the past two years that is available under continuing appropriations.

Angara took over as DepEd secretary in July last year from Vice President Sara Duterte. As DepEd secretary, VP Duterte came under fire at the Lower House for her alleged mis-use of confidential and intelligence funds during her two-year stint as the head of the agency. After she attended and appeared before these congressional hearings, VP Duterte maintains all these allegations were nothing but politically-motivated accusations against her ahead of the next presidential election in 2028 yet.

Incidentally, the 2025 GAA coincides with the holding of the mid-term polls in May this year. Some of the senators and many congressional members are running either for re-election or for other elective positions at the Senate or in local governments. The 2025 GAA was one of the last pieces of legislation that both chambers of Congress approved before they adjourned for their month-long Christmas break.

Congress resumes sessions this Jan. 13. It’s a day after the start of the official election campaign period for all candidates running for the Senate, while campaign for local bets starts on March 28 yet.

Happy New Year to all as fireworks on the 2025 GAA begin.