President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration strongly pushes to increase the budget on infrastructure projects, specifically transportation systems like railways, as the House of Representatives already began the P5.768 trillion budget deliberation for 2024 on Thursday, August 10.
According to Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, the Marcos government proposes to spend P1.418 trillion on infrastructure, which is one-fourth of the planned budget and 5.3 percent of the domestic economy.
It had more than doubled the budget allocation of the Department of Transportation (DOTR) from P105.98 billion this year to P214.3 billion in 2024.
According to Pangandaman, the DOTr budget would prioritize physical connectivity infrastructure like road networks and train systems, which will account for over 43.5 percent of the national budget.
She explained that the DOTr budget would prioritize physical connectivity infrastructure like road networks and train systems, which will account for over 43.5 percent of the national budget.
It had more than doubled the budget allocation of the Department of Transportation (DOTR) from P105.98 billion this year to P214.3 billion in 2024.
The DBM Chief also stated that P2.18 trillion will be allocated to the social services sector in the planned 2024 budget to fund health, social, and education-related services in order to promote an enabling environment for social and economic development.
Among the DOTr projects are the following:
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North-South Commuter Railway System from New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, to Calamba, Laguna
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Metro Manila Subway Project Phase I, consisting of 15 stations from Valenzuela City to Pasay City,
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LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project, which will add 11 kilometers to the existing railway system
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Philippine National Railways South Long Haul Project, which will reconstruct the PNR South Main Line
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MRT 3 Rehabilitation Project
House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez earlier mentioned they will spend five weeks to deliberate the bill.
