President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to sign the P5.268 trillion proposed national appropriations for 2023 on Friday afternoon, the first budget under his administration.
Mr. Marcos will attend the ceremonial signing of the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) at Malacañang at around 3 p.m., according to a Palace advisory issued last night.
The House of Representatives approved and turned over copies of the national spending plan for next year to the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) for submission to the Palace.
Speaker Martin G. Romualdez signed and turned over the House copies of the budget to PLLO Secretary Mark Llandro L. Mendoza, as witnessed by House committee on appropriations chairman and Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” M. Dalipe, and PLLO USec. Agapito Guanlao.
The Senate was expected to follow suit soon after, agreeing with fellow lawmakers in the lower chamber to realign about P70 billion in expenditures for 2023.
The President had pledged to sign the budget as soon as he returned—last night —from a trip to Belgium, where he spent three days meeting with European leaders and businessmen.
The Department of Budget and Management also said Mr. Marcos would veto two to three provisions in the 2023 GAA.
On December 5, both chambers of Congress ratified the bicameral version of the budget bill, which aims to fuel the administration’s goals for economic recovery.
The education sector will get the biggest chunk of the budget even as the agriculture sector will also enjoy support in terms of appropriations.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman noted that lawmakers realigned roughly P70 billion, saying: “Upon our initial analysis and checking of numbers, most of it (realignment) went to our priority programs.”
These include funding for the education sector, specifically state universities and colleges, for social services, and the health sector.
Lawmakers also realigned resources to still fund the Libreng Sakay program along the EDSA Bus Carousel. The government, citing lack of funds, had announced that the free bus ride would no longer be extended beyond this month.
“Right now, we are working on the veto message. We are consolidating the numbers and the amendments that the bicameral committee ratified last week,” Pangandaman said.
She emphasized that the good working relationship between the executive and legislative branches allowed minimal changes in the proposed budget.
“When we turned over the NEP (National Expenditure Program) to them [House of Representatives and Senate], we only asked for one thing and that is when they make changes, hopefully, it is in synch and anchored on the medium-term fiscal framework (MTFF) and the eight-point socioeconomic agenda,” Pangandaman said.
The MTFF is the administration’s blueprint to sustain the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery and support accelerated growth. It also serves as a roadmap for developing the government’s annual national expenditure program.
Both houses of Congress adopted the MTFF even prior to the submission of the 2023 budget.
As to the President’s veto message, Pangandaman said it is “very friendly.”
“I think we only have two to three direct vetoes. The rest are general and conditional observations,” she said.
While in Brussels where he joined the President before flying home ahead in time for the House’s last session day before the holiday break, Romualdez said the 2023 budget is expected to promote economic growth through spending.
“The President is poised to sign the biggest budget ever for the country and we are told by the economic managers that this will be immediately deployed,” he told reporters in Belgium yesterday.
“So, you’ll see close to two-thirds of that being deployed in the first semester so you can see how our economy’s growth will be sustained with the government’s spending,” he added.