The Marcos government’s P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023 is very much aligned to the administration’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF), which would serve as the country’s blueprint to full economic recovery, Senate Finance Committee chief Senator Sonny Angara said on Tuesday, November 8.

Angara made the assurance when he sponsored Committee Report No. 10 on House Bill No. 4488 or the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) during the Senate’s plenary session in the afternoon.

“As maiden budgets of new administrations go, this one was expedited, delivered to us in an impressive seven weeks after inauguration day. But it would be wrong to say that its components were mostly salvaged from the fiscal workshop of the past administration,” Angara said during his sponsorship speech.

“Naturally, the National Expenditure Program (NEP) follows the MTFF closely—with the President writing his budget message that the budget his government has proposed for next year will usher in an economic transformation towards inclusivity and sustainability,” he said.

Next year’s proposed appropriation has factored in the debilitating effects of the long COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the increasing intensity of natural calamities and disasters happening in the country and inflation.

“Hence, (the) committee has done its best to make sure that every item in this budget we are proposing aligns fully with the MTFF,” the senator said.

One of these foremost priorities under the MTFF, he said, is food security, and the Senate finance panel has put a premium on funding for the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) national programs for rice, corn, high-value crops development, organic agriculture, livestock and urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Next year’s spending would also prioritize social protection measures such as the giving of additional funding for the implementation of the 4Ps, emergency employment programs and other projects.

Angara also said the Senate finance panel affirmed or increased the appropriations proposed for the Quick Response Funds (QRFs) of the DA, Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of National Defense’s (DND) Office of Civil Defense, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“We have also assured the resources devoted to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund or NDRRMF. This includes the appropriations for the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Fund,” Angara said.

Angara also said the proposed budget follows through on the ongoing drive for local communities to have a more direct role to play in their own development through devolution and decentralization.

The 2023 national budget is also putting premium on the reopening of the Philippine tourism industry, which was among the hardest hit throughout the pandemic.

Next year’s budget, he also said, supports the government’s initiatives for digital transformation to ensure faster and more improved delivery of social services.

At the same time, he said the budget bill also ensures the continuation of the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program in the next six years under the Build Better More (BBM) initiative to hasten the completion of infrastructure programs which is “key to the economic transformation the administration aims to achieve.”