With both houses of Congress having ratified the ₱5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, it now only needs the signature of President Marcos to become a law.

The House of Representatives ratified the proposed 2024 budget — the largest in the country’s history — Monday night, while the 24-man Senate did it earlier in the afternoon.

By all indications, the signing of the 2024 budget into law is expected before the beginning of the new year.

Speaker Martin Romualdez, leader of the 300-plus strong House, had earlier said Congress’ target was to have the budget measure signed into law before Christmas.

The social services sector — encompassing health, education, culture, manpower development — got the biggest chunk of the 2024 budget. And like in previous years, education was given utmost priority.

Also prioritized in the spending plan is infrastructure to sustain the momentum of the Build-Better-More Program of the Marcos administration. 
Other key features of next year’s budget are its anti-inflation and pro-poor provisions — two key issues which the government deemed important to address promptly.

Apart from the regular budget items, there are three legacy projects that President Marcos hopes to fulfill through this budget — Legacy Food Security, Legacy Specialty Hospitals, and Legacy Housing for the poor.

Under the Legacy Food Security, Congress allocated ₱10 billion to support rice farmers through irrigation, free seeds, fertilizers, and other farm inputs; ₱60 billion in large-scale irrigation projects; ₱25 billion for the Department of Agriculture for crop production.

In the Legacy Specialty Hospitals, Congress allocated ₱1 billion for the Philippine General Hospital expansion, ₱1.5 billion for the National Kidney Center, ₱1 billion each for the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, National Cancer Center, Bicol Regional Medical Center, and other specialty hospitals in Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna.

For the Legacy Housing, a ₱10-billion subsidy has been allocated for this project, while mass housing will now be more affordable under the 2024 budget as monthly amortization will now range from ₱2,500 to ₱3,500 at zero interest. 

Another key element of next year’s budget is the confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), an issue that remains controversial and contentious. The CIF will be out of the hands of civilian agencies that have nothing to do with security and intelligence gathering. The CIF earlier sought by civilian agencies were instead channeled to state institutions involved in national security.

With the national budget for 2024 zeroing in on social services, infrastructure, and national security, we expect that the needs of these sectors will be better addressed. Completely addressing the needs of these sectors have a long way to go. But prioritizing them under next year’s spending plan is a step in the right direction.

We look forward to the judicious and wise spending of the budget for a better Philippines.