PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. finally signed the 2025 General Appropriations Act on Monday, December 30.
Republic Act 12116 or also known as “An Act Appropriating Funds for the Operation of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines from January 1 to December 31, 2025”, was signed by Marcos Jr. in a simple ceremony at the Malacañang Palace in Manila.
This was after the 10-day delay in the original schedule of the enactment of the PHP6.326 trillion budget bill over some allegations of unconstitutional provisions that could cause complications with the Supreme Court.
“We are happy to announce that the President just signed into law the PHP6.326 trillion budget for 2025 which we have carefully studied line by line,” said Finance Secretary Ralph Recto during a press briefing.
He added that only PHP4.64 trillion out of the PHP 6.326 trillion in the 2025 national budget will be supported by revenues.
“Ibig sabihin sa susunod na taon, ang gastusin ng gobyerno ay aabot sa PHP17.3 billion kada araw, but only PHP12.72 billion per day will be financed by revenue collections every 24 hours,” explained Recto.
The signed 2025 Budget Plan is now refocused to fund the administration’s eight-point socioeconomic agenda next year. Malacañang said that it was meticulously assessed to ensure alignment with the administration’s objective for the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.
Marcos Jr., who himself had issues with the budget plan passed by Congress, vetoed the PHP194 billion worth of line items that are not consistent with the country’s development plans.
“Nakikinig po ang ating pangulo sa taumbayan,” said Department of Budget and Management Secretary, Amenah Pangandaman.
“That is why among others, and program appropriations which increased by 300 percent than the bicam version of the budget have been greatly reduced by direct veto. “
This includes portions of the budget allocated to unprogrammed items from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which faced intense scrutiny after receiving more funding than the Department of Education (DepEd).
In the signed 2025 Budget Plan, the Education department remained with the highest budget priority of PHP1.05 trillion, followed closely by DPWH with PHP1.007 trillion.
President Marcos explained that the PHP26.06 billion worth of DPWH programs he vetoed were not aligned with the government’s infrastructure priorities.
Additionally, the vetoed unprogrammed appropriations were deemed inconsistent with fiscal discipline, as expenditures should strictly adhere to the parameters of programmed resources set by fiscal planners.
Other key departments prioritized in the budget include the Department of National Defense (DND) with PHP315.1 billion, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) with PHP279.1 billion, the Department of Health (DOH) with PHP267.8 billion, and the Department of Agriculture (DA) with PHP237.4 billion.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) received an allocation of PHP217.5 billion, followed by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) with PHP123.7 billion, the Judiciary with PHP64.0 billion, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) with PHP42.2 billion.
Marcos assured Filipinos that priority measures would be funded in 2025, and that the refocused budget would “have stronger safeguards on spending for different projects.”
