The P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023---the first full-year outlay of the Marcos administration---will be "immediately deployed" for the benefit of Filipinos.
Thus, said House Speaker Martin Romualdez who held a briefing with Manila-based reporters in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday morning (Philippine time), Dec. 14.
Romualdez is part of the official delegation of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who is in Belgium to attend the European Union-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (EU-ASEAN) Summit. The Chief Executive is scheduled to be back in the Philippines on Dec. 15.
"As soon as he comes back from Brussels, the President is poised to sign the biggest budget ever for the country," Romualdez said, referring to the 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
"And we are told by the economic managers that this will be immediately deployed so you’ll see close to two thirds of that being deployed on the first semester," the Leyte 1st district congressman said of the national budget.
Next year's GAB is the biggest ever in the history of the Philippines.
"So you could see how our economy’s growth will be sustained through the government spending. And so I think things are looking quite bright for the Philippines," Romualdez reckoned.
The House of Representatives and the Senate have already ratified the GAB, which now only needs Marcos's signature for it to become a law.