President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. has approved the proposed PHP 5.768 trillion national budget for 2024, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Friday.
In a statement, DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the proposed funding for next year is 9.5% higher compared to this year's P5.268 trillion budget.
“Guided by our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, the proposed national budget will continue to prioritize expenditures outlined in the administration's 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and cater to the objectives of PDP 2023-2028,” Pangandaman said.
“It shall continue to reflect our commitment to pursue economic and social transformation to address the scarring effects of the pandemic, as well as the impact of inflation, by prioritizing shovel-ready investments in infrastructure projects, investments in human capital development, and sustainable agriculture and food security, among others,” she added.
The budget, according to Pangandaman, was crafted "as an indispensable step towards the overarching goal to attain upper-middle-income status while bringing down the deficit to 3% of GDP and reducing the poverty rate to 9% or single digit by 2028."
She also noted that their office received a total of PHP 5.90 billion in budget proposals, but the figure was trimmed down due to the “limited fiscal space.”
Pangandaman said since the proposed budget was approved by the President during the meeting.
"Any adjustments in the proposed amounts will result in a zero-sum game where one agency's gain will be equivalent to another agency's loss; or one project's gain is another project's loss,” she said.
The official plans to submit the proposed 2024 national budget to Congress “a few weeks” after Marcos’ second State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.
All concerned agencies should exert all efforts to support and defend the President’s Budget and the budget levels during congressional deliberations, the DBM chief stated.
