Pangandaman says Marcos to sign 2023 national budget on Friday
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. will sign the proposed 2023 P5.268 trillion national budget on Friday, Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.
“On Friday...the President will sign our General Appropriations Act,” Pangandaman said in a media forum on Wednesday.
“Right now, we're working on the veto message and then consolidating all the numbers, the amendments, and changes that the bicameral committee ratified last week. So we're happy that, if the President signs this on the 16th, I think it's the first time that this will be the earliest budget to be signed,” she added.
Pangandaman said that around P70 billion of the P5.268 trillion budget were realigned to fund state universities and colleges, social welfare programs, medical assistance, and the EDSA bus carousel free ride program.
“I think we only have two three direct vetos, and all the rest are just conditional and general observations,” she said.
Pangandaman said that compared to the last national budget passed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, the present budget places more emphasis on digitalizing government processes.
“When we presented the first budget, the draft we presented initially did not include the digitalization efforts of the government. Because I think, of course, it was also the last term of the Duterte Administration. So when (President Marcos, Jr.) said he’s also pro digitalization so that the cost of doing business would be reduced, for transparency, and accountability,” Pangandaman told the forum.
“So when he returned the draft for us to review, he asked us, to us to incorporate. He asked all the cabinet members also to check their programs and introduce programs to include their digitalization efforts. So in the second version, we adopted the digitalization efforts of most agencies, ” she added.
Pangandaman said P300 billion was allocated for the digitalization program of various government agencies.
Congress ratified the 2023 General Appropriations Act last week, on December 6.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez earlier said Marcos could sign the national budget after he returns from his trip to Belgium, where he attended the ASEAN-European Union (EU) Commemorative Summit. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
