Senate deliberation on proposed 2024 nat’l budget begins
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Tuesday began scrutinizing the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024.
The Senate’s committee on finance, presided over by its chairperson Senator Sonny Angara, began the deliberations with a briefing from the Development Budget Coordination Committee on the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
The proposed 2024 national budget amounts to P5.768 trillion, which is higher by 9.5 percent compared to this year’s P5.268 trillion appropriation.
According to the Department of Budget and Management, the 2024 national budget seeks to “secure a future-proof and sustainable community,” adding that it was designed to “spur the country’s high-growth trajectory” while the Philippines targets to attain upper-middle income status by 2025.
A quick look into NEP 2024 shows that the social services sector will receive the largest allocation of P2.183 trillion or at least 37.9 percent of the proposed budget.
DBM said the sector comprises health, education, culture, and manpower development, as well as social security, welfare, and employment.
Next up are economic services (29.6 percent), general public services (15.5 percent), debt burden (12.1 percent), and defense (4.9 percent).
Below are the priority sectors identified by DBM concerning the budget proposal:
- Education (P924.7 billion)
- Public Works (P822.2 billion)
- Health (P306.1 billion)
- Interior and Local Government (P259.5 billion)
- Defense (P232.2 billion)
- Transportation (P214.3 billion)
- Social Welfare (P209.9 billion)
- Agriculture (P181.4 billion)
- Judiciary (P57.8 billion)
- Labor and Employment (P40.5 billion)
