Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may be signing the P5.7 trillion budget for 2024 by mid-December, before his international travel to Japan from December 16 to 18.
Diokno told Palace reporters that he was talking to the liaison office as the budget has already been approved, saying that they are attending a conference committee by December 1, in which there is still enough time for Marcos to sign it.
In late September, the House of Representatives had already approved the proposed General Appropriations Act on its third and final reading without any changes, leaving announced realignments of surveillance funds to a small group of House leaders.
Earlier, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said that the 2024 fiscal spending could be approved on time right after the Senate closed the plenary debates on different government agencies’ budgets.
Meanwhile, the Department of Budget and Management emphasized that the budget for next year is 9.5% higher than the budget allotted for this year, saying that it is equivalent to 21.7% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
