The Marcos administration is planning to propose a P5.768-trillion national budget for next year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced. In a briefing on Friday, June 9, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said that next year’s proposed budget will be 9.5 percent higher compared with this year’s P5.268 trillion appropriations. “The proposed national budget will continue to prioritize expenditure items that promote social and economic transformation through infrastructure development, food security, digital transformation, and human capital development,” Pangandaman said. The Cabinet will be meeting on June 22 to deliberate the proposed budget, the budget chief said. Upon its approval, Pangandaman said the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) will be submitted to Congress within a tight three to five-day timeframe following President Marcos' second State of the Nation Address on July 24th. “Our budget will still be consistent with our PDP [Philippine Development Plan] and Medium Term Fiscal Framework… geared towards the three major items that we presented last year,” Pangandaman said. These include strengthening the purchasing power of Filipinos by reducing food, agriculture, energy and logistics costs. Next year’s budget will also remain anchored on the government’s goal of reducing vulnerability and mitigating scaring from the Covid-19 pandemic, through budgets for social protection, health and education. Lastly, the 2024 budget seeks to ensure strong macroeconomic fundamentals which will cover the budget for digitalization. “Acknowledging the competing demands of government programs against a backdrop of limited resources, we shall ensure that the FY 2024 National Expenditure Program will only include implementation-ready agency proposals,” the DBM chief said.