BEYOND BUDGET

Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

Today is the start of the New Year.

As we bid goodbye to the old and welcome the new, we reflect on the year that was and hope for a better, brighter 2025.

2024: A year of grace and triumphs

For us in the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), 2024 was a hectic but productive and grace-filled year.

Fulfilling our mandate to promote the sound, efficient, and effective management and utilization of government resources to realize our development goals, we prioritized funds for crucial programs and projects that cater to the very needs of our people, especially the most vulnerable sectors—from infrastructure to health, capacity development, and social protection initiatives—aligned with the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028. We transmitted for Congress’ deliberation the 2025 National Expenditure Program last July 29, just a week after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s (PBBM) State of the Nation Address, and PBBM signed the ₱6.326 trillion Fiscal Year 2025 General Appropriations Act into law last Dec. 30, after a careful and thorough review by the agencies concerned and with the guidance of our executive secretary, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Indeed, we must thank our President for personally being on top of reviewing the Bicameral Committee’s version of the budget, and for preventing a reenacted budget even though Congress’ version was quite different from the proposed budget we submitted.

As we close the year, I am also proud to share some of our achievements for the Filipino people:

At the top of the list is the passage of the New Government Procurement Act, hailed as the biggest anti-corruption reform in recent history. This new law will usher in a new era of procurement service that will be a gold standard for procurement in the world.

We also officially launched the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028, a strategic blueprint that revolutionizes public fund management across government agencies, putting digital transformation at the forefront of our reform agenda.

Aligned with this, we are continuing our digital transformation initiatives, including launching the Budget and Treasury Management System, a part of the larger Integrated Financial Management Information System initiative which adopts microservices and cloud-based technologies to integrate and connect agencies in a unified financial management platform to instill transparency through accurate, real-time data for better decision-making. It encourages sustainability by building adaptive, accountable, and future-ready systems.

We also increased efforts toward transparency and accountability, making the Philippines No. 1 in Budget Transparency not just in Southeast Asia but in the whole of Asia!

Toward increased public participation and a more open government, we amped up our OGPinas! nationwide advocacy campaign and I am happy to have personally dialogued with many of you as we visited nine regions around the country and engaged with almost 4,000 stakeholders.

We also expanded our efforts for capacity-building, and we were able to visit all 13 regions across the nation and train almost 9,000 local PFM practitioners.

As a daughter of Mindanao, I am especially proud of our work toward lasting peace and economic development in the region. The National Government-Bangsamoro Government Intergovernmental Relations Body (IGRB), which I co-chair, submitted its third Progress Report to the President and completed the draft for the IGRB Manual, which will ensure smooth relations between the National Government and the Bangsamoro Government as we move forward.

I also share with all of you the Gawad Kapayapaan Award that I received this year for all our efforts for lasting peace and prosperity in Mindanao because peace is never the act of one person alone. We can only achieve peace together.

As a woman, I was also honored to lead the Philippine delegation to the 68th Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women and speak at the UN Headquarters in New York. It was also an honor to host the panel on women, peace, and security (WPS) at the first-ever ministerial-level International Conference on WPS that the country hosted in October.

Finally, as a public servant, I am happy to report that with the support of our President, we have successfully implemented the much-awaited salary increase and medical allowance, the earlier release of mid-year bonus, and higher gratuity pay for contract of service and job order workers, among others.

These are just a few of our accomplishments for 2024 and we offer all of these to God and the Filipino people.

Indeed, 2025 has much in store for us in the DBM and the PBBM administration. As we enter another year, may we continue to be inspired and driven to fulfill our Agenda for Prosperity. Insha Allah!
Happy New Year!

(Amenah F. Pangandaman is the Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management.)