After much controversy, President Marcos signed the 2025 national budget on Monday, Dec. 30, disclosing that he vetoed P194 billion worth of line items.
The signing of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the Fiscal Year 2025 came after undergoing a 10-day scrutiny led by the President and his Cabinet.
With the vetoed items, the final budget for next year was slightly reduced to P6.326 trillion from the proposed P6.352 trillion budget.
"[A]fter an exhaustive and thorough review, we have directly vetoed over 194 billion worth of the line items that are not consistent with our programmed priorities. These include allocations for certain programs and projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and those under the Unprogrammed Appropriations, which increased by 300 percent," Marcos disclosed.
According to Department of Budget Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, the vetoed items include P26 billion under the DPWH and P168 billion unprogrammed projects—these were directly vetoed by the President, which means that the items were totally deleted from the national budget, including the allocations, making the 2025 GAA lower than the proposed version.
Pangandaman explained during a press briefing shortly after the ceremonial signing of the budget that the vetoed items from the DPWH involve projects considered as totally not supportive of the administration's economic agenda, projects that need to be scrutinized, and those that are not ready for implementation.
Rejecting items under the unprogrammed projects, Pangandaman also stressed, was consistent with the standard of allocating only five percent of the budget into unprogrammed projects, which are usually contingency funds.
In his speech, Marcos said the government shall also pursue conditional implementation on certain items to ensure that the people's funds are utilized in accordance with their authorized purposes.
There are 12 government programs that would be under conditional implementation. These are projects from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), DPWH, Ombudsman, Department of Agriculture (DA), Judiciary, National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund, Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the Congress.
Some of these programs under conditional implementation include funds for rewards incentives, retirement and pensions, maintenance and other operations, cash allocations, among others.
Marcos also said he was aware that there have been calls to reenact the 2024 budget, considering the delay in the signing and the issues surrounding it. However, he said it was not an option as it would only set the country back.
"There were calls to veto the entire budget and to revert to a reenacted one. However, this is not an option that we can afford. A reenacted budget will set us back, delay our vital programs, jeopardize targets for economic growth, including our goals of achieving single-digit poverty levels, and upper-middle-income status," he stressed.
"However, the Executive Branch is one with the people in raising concerns over appropriations that are not consistent with the country’s development plan and responsive to the needs of the people. After all, it is our people whom we serve," he assured.
Public funds must not break public trust
The President said the 2025 budget "reflects our collective commitment to transforming economic gains into meaningful outcomes for every Filipino."
He added it is designed not just to address present needs, but to sustain growth and to uplift the lives of generations that are yet to come.
He also assured the public that the final version of the budget "reflects many of our shared priorities" thus some provisions required careful scrutiny.
"We must exercise maximum prudence otherwise, we run the risk of increasing our deficit and debt and derailing our development agenda for our country," he said.
The Chief Executive justified the decision to veto some items in the final version of the budget, saying such approach "is anchored on a simple yet profound truth: the appropriation of public funds must not break the public trust."
He ensured the public that all increases in appropriations and new budgetary items shall now be subject to cash programming; applicable budget execution rules; and vetting and approval of the concerned offices.
"This way we guarantee that these programs and projects are implementable and will redound to the benefit of our people," he said.
Budget shares
The education sector now has the largest share of the pie with P1.06 trillion, followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with P1.01 trillion.
The Department of Health (DOH) got P267.8 billion, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) P279.1 billion, the Department of National Defense (DND) P315.1 billion, while the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will have an allocation of P217.5 billion.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) was given a P237.4-billion budget, while the Department of Transportation (DOTr) got P123.7 billion.
The Judiciary will have a P64-billion budget with the Department of Justice (DOJ) getting P42.2 billion. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) got P39.5 billion.
The remaining P2.68 trillion was distributed among the other departments.
In his speech, the President assured that despite the zero subsidy on the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), the government will see to it that the benefits will expand and will be sustained.
He also assured the people that under the new budget, social services, education, and health will be prioritized. He further promised to lower the prices of food, especially rice; and to build more classrooms.
"Through this budget, we will also prioritize green investments, and disaster preparedness to safeguard our environment and ensure resilience against disasters. We shall drive innovation and enhance trade and investments to create more quality jobs and to improve productivity," Marcos said.
"To sustain these efforts, we are advancing governance reforms. We shall continue to improve our systems for a more efficient, transparent, and accountable government. Through digitalization we shall streamline services, reduce bureaucratic delays, and combat corruption," he added.
Budget is constitutional
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin made an assurance that the approved budget is not unconstitutional as both branches of the government—the Congress and the Executive Branch—are in good faith.
"Sa panawagan na ang budget natin ay isang budget na unconstitutional, nais ko pong sabihin sa inyong lahat na hindi po magkakaroon ng ganung pagakakataon na unconstitutional ang budget (On claims that the budget is unconstitutional, I would like to say that there are no instances wherein the budget would be unconstitutional). This is the interplay between the Congress and the Executive Branch," Bersamin said in a Palace briefing also on Monday.
He said it will only be branded as unconstitutional once it will be challenged in the Supreme Court. However, in his experience in the judiciary it would be difficult to bring the matter to the Supreme Court as the two branches of the government involved in passing the budget are in good faith.
"Hindi natin mapipigilan kung merong mga (We cannot prevent if there are ) quarters who would still like to be heard on this issue. But I hope they should not because that will again be distracting us," he said.