President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has signed into law the P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023, which "gives muscle" to the roadmap the administration intends to implement next year.

Marcos signed the Republic Act No. 11936 or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2023 in a ceremony with lawmakers and Cabinet members in Malacañang on Friday, Dec. 16.

The P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023 is 4.9 percent higher than this year's budget of P5.024 trillion.

It intends to fund priority sectors such as education, public works, health, social welfare, agriculture and transportation.

The President in his speech underscored that the swift passage of the national budget "essentially defines and gives muscle to the roadmap of what we intend to do for the next year."

"The rapidity of the passage is significant because it means that the roadmap we have proposed from the Executive is fully supported by our Legislature," Marcos said.

Marcos also stressed that the national budget would help "position ourself in the new economy" after the coronavirus pandemic.

"And that bodes well for us, seeing as we have many, many plans. There are many things that we need to do. There are many things that we would like to do. And we are slowly moving in that direction. We are doing all the structural changes that we need," Marcos said.

'Christmas gift'

Meanwhile, the President described the prompt passage of the first national budget under his administration as a Christmas gift as it was regarded as the fastest budget to be passed.

"I have been greeted by many of you as we had our pictures taken. Merry Christmas. Well, I will have, I suppose a Merry Christmas because this is as fine a Christmas gift as can be received by any President from his legislature," he said.

"I cannot overstate of the significance of the fact that, as Speaker Martin continually reminds me, this is the quickest and the fastest, and the SP (Senate President), the fastest passage of the national budget that we have seen so far," he added.

The legislature, the chief executive said, "has been very cooperative" in making amendments that are necessary to the laws in terms of investment and the country's financial policy.

He commended both the House of Representatives and Senate for "moving in the same direction" and "following the same plan" as the Executive department.

"So it is a very important day. It is always an important day when we sign into law the General Appropriations Act. It is always very important that the GAA has been put together in consonance with all of the plans of the Executive. And that kind of coordination and that kind of synergy that we will gain from that is going to be an essential part of the way that we move forward," Marcos said.