For 2025, the various government departments and agencies proposed a total of P9.2 trillion worth of programs and projects. But these could not be funded fully, which is the reason why the 2025 national budget will amount to P6.3 trillion.

In a post-State of the Nation (SONA) forum held last July 23 in Pasay City, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that the P6.3-trillion budget for 2024 has been approved by both President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his cabinet.

The 2025 budget represents a 10% increase over the P5.76-trillion total government funding for 2024.

“Our budget was approved by the president and cabinet two weeks ako,” Pangandaman said.

“It (budget amount) remains a little above 20% of our gross domestic product,” she added.
However, Pangandaman said that the heads of the various government departments and agencies asked to fund P9.2 billion worth of programs and projects, which necessitated the selection of priority initiatives.

“And if I may say, our department heads and agency heads submitted a total of P9.2 trillion worth of programs and projects. We are happy to note that our cabinet secretaries, our department secretaries, are finally focusing and prioritizing their projects and programs, thus the big amount that they proposed,” she said.

“But then, with the DBCC, we really have this fiscal consolidation. So it reached only P6,3 trillion. We thanked them, for carefully prioritizing their projects,” Pangandaman added.
The DBCC is the Development Budget Coordination Committee, the inter-agency body chaired by the Department of Budget and Management, with the Department of Finance (DOF), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and the Office of the President as members. The DBCC is tasked with reviewing and approving the national government’s macroeconomic assumptions and fiscal program.

Pangandaman said that the department and agency heads were asked to prioritize their programs and projects based on the following:

• These are implementation or “shovel ready,” and have all the necessary planning completed;
• The agency must have the absorptive capacity for large budgets, based from data dating bac to 2022; and
• Projects and programs are in line or covered by the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.

E-PROCUREMENT

Meanwhile, Pangandaman said that the newly-enacted government procurement law is the “biggest anti-graft and corruption law in modern history.”

She was referring to Republic Act (RA) 12009 or the New Government Procurement Act signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. into law on July 20, 2024.

“The New Government Procurement Act (NGPA) is the biggest anti-graft and corruption law in our modern history. So, we’re happy that the 20-year-old law is now amended and fully modernized – the process and the procurement system,” she said.

Among others, the NGPA provides alternative modes of procurement, and the creation of an “e-marketplace” similar to online shopping outlets like Lazada, Shopee, and Amazon.
With the platform, government agencies can place orders for common-use supplies and equipment (CSE) through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), greatly reducing turnaround time.

“We’ll make use of modern technology. For common-use supplies, we will use systems and applications similar to Lazada and Shopee. So, it will just be ‘add to cart’ because we know that a lot of common-use supplies are unavailable in our Procurement Service, in our warehouses. But now, it will be online,” Pangandaman said.

(PNA photo shows the post-State of the Nation (SONA) forum held last July 23, focusing in food security and economic development)