The Marcos administration’s subsidies to government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) increased by 15.3 percent to ₱22.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025 from ₱19.6 billion a year earlier.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the increase in subsidies for GOCCs was seen in other GOCCs, as subsidies for major non-financial and financial corporations posted a decline.

Other government corporations received a total of ₱9.3 billion in support from the government for the first quarter of the year—nearly three times the amount the government had given them last year, at ₱3.2 billion.

Subsidies to other GOCCs accounted for 41.2 percent of total government subsidies during the period.

Meanwhile, major non-financial government corporations, which accounted for 58 percent of the total, decreased by 13.8 percent to ₱13.1 billion from ₱15.2 billion in the same period last year.

The majority of the decline came from the 22.3-percent decrease in subsidies for the National Irrigation Administration (NIA). It received a total of ₱8 billion in the first quarter, down from ₱10.3 billion last year.

NIA is primarily responsible for the development and management of irrigation systems to support the country’s agricultural sector.

Likewise, government financial institutions (GFIs) received only ₱189 million, dropping by nearly 16,000 percent from the previous year’s ₱1.2 billion. Subsidies to GFIs accounted for 0.84 percent of the quarter’s total.

In March alone, the government increased its subsidies to GOCCs by 53.6 percent to ₱10.6 billion from ₱6.9 billion. March’s subsidies accounted for 46.8 percent of the quarter’s total.

Subsidies for other GOCCs also contributed the most to this rise, increasing by 215.4 percent to ₱4.1 billion from ₱1.3 billion a year ago.

It can be recalled that the Marcos administration’s subsidies to GOCCs last year were the lowest in six years.

GOCCs received a total of ₱138.8 billion in state subsidies from January to December 2024, a 15-percent drop compared to ₱163.5 billion in 2023. The 2024 full-year subsidy figure was the lowest since 2018’s ₱136.7 billion.

It was also significantly lower than the peak of over ₱229 billion in 2020—at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the national government provided wage subsidies to workers in severely affected small businesses and distributed cash aid to vulnerable sectors during the peak of the strictest lockdown to contain the deadly virus.

During the current Marcos administration, last year’s subsidies were the lowest annual support to GOCCs to date.