PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the Presidential Communications Office
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Monday signed into law the P6.326 trillion national budget for 2025.
Marcos signed the budget in a ceremony in Malacañang, coinciding with the country’s observation of Rizal Day.
The 2025 national budget initially amounted to P6.352 trillion but was reduced to P6.326 trillion following the veto of P194 billion line items deemed inconsistent with the administration’s priority programs.
These include roughly P26 billion worth of programs and projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways and P168 billion unprogrammed appropriations.
“While the final version of the budget reflects many of our shared priorities, some provisions required careful scrutiny. The Filipino people have spoken: every centavo must go to programs that truly uplift lives, strengthen communities, secure the future development of the Philippines,” Marcos said.
“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,” he added.
In addition, Marcos pursued a conditional implementation of the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), which will now be implemented in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Labor and Employment, and the National Economic and Development Authority.
Aside from AKAP, 11 more projects or programs were placed under conditional implementation.
The budget for projects or programs under conditional implementation will not be immediately released until its implementing agencies have released guidelines.
“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 pointed out.
“This approach is anchored on a simple yet profound truth: the appropriation of public funds must not break the public trust,” he added.
The signing of the budget was initially scheduled for December 20 but was deferred to make way for further review.
The final version of the proposed national budget for next year saw significant cuts to the budget of the DSWD (P86 billion), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (P74.5 billion) and Department of Education (P12 billion).