DBM: 2023 national budget a ‘starting point’ for gov’t 8-point socioeconomic goals

Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman speaks during the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum held at Café Adriatico in Malate, Manila, on December 14, 2022. INQUIRER.net file photo / Ryan Leagogo

MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration has unveiled its eight-point socioeconomic agenda, with the 2023 national budget of P5.268 trillion as the “starting point,” the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Wednesday.

The 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the biggest budget for the Philippine government so far, “aims to address the immediate concerns of the country, such as inflation, by protecting the purchasing power of families and consumers,” the DBM, in a statement, said.

“The recently approved national budget also targets to mitigate the socioeconomic scarring brought by the COVID-19 pandemic,” it added.

Marcos’ budget chief Amenah Pangandaman also emphasized that the national budget for the upcoming year is targeted to help fulfill the administration’s mission of creating new jobs and decreasing poverty.

“We will do this by steering our economy back to its high-growth trajectory as encapsulated in our Medium-term Fiscal Framework. Of course, we will be needing the consolidated efforts of all sectors to sustain inclusive and resilient growth in the near term,” Pangandaman said.

DBM then outlined the budgetary allocation for each of the Marcos administration’s eight-point socioeconomic agenda:

• Ensuring food security – P174 billion
• Improving transportation – P976.5 billion
• Investing in affordable and clean energy – P10.2 billion
• Advancing health care – P342.4 billion
• Boosting education sector – P778.6 billion
• Strengthening social services and programs – P239.1 billion
• Ensuring sound fiscal management, P21.6 billion
• Enhancing bureaucratic efficiency by digitalizing government processes and operations – P15.6 billion

According to the DBM, the 2023 GAA is 4.9 percent higher than the fiscal year 2022.
This, it said, will “serve as the roadmap towards robust economic growth and the creation of more quality and green jobs over the next six years.”

Last December 16, Marcos signed the national budget for 2023, which, he pointed out, was the fastest to pass through Congress.

Both chambers of Congress approved the consolidated version of the 2023 General Appropriations Bill on Dec. 5 through its bicameral conference committee.

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