President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said Thursday that he will try to “regain control” of the proposed P6.35 trillion 2025 national budget by going through ''item by item, line by line so see what is priority and what is not.''

In an interview with reporters at Villamor Air Base, Marcos said the 2025 General Appropriations Act submitted to the government turned out differently from the Palace’s initial request.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Wednesday said the signing of the proposed 2025 national budget, originally set Friday, would be deferred as a thorough review would be done.

On Wednesday afternoon, Marcos met his economic managers to discuss the budget, which was approved by the bicameral conference committee and both Houses of Congress last week.

“We had to have a look because there are many changes to the budget requests from the different departments and we have to put it back in the same shape that we had first requested,” Marcos said.

Marcos calling for the bicameral conference committee to reconvene is out of the question.

“So unfortunately, I am only left now with the veto power because the bicameral conference committee has finished approving it…Now, it’s up to us on how we regain control of the spending program and I cannot give you the details yet because that is what we are doing. We’re going through item by item, line by line to see what is priority and what is not. That’s what we will come up with,” he added.

Marcos said he hopes to sign the budget bill before the year ends.

“So, I cannot give you a date because it will take as long as it would take but I want to be very, very sure that the budget for 2025 is directed at the important projects that we have prioritized, number one,” Marcos said.

“And secondly, that there (are) stronger safeguards on the spending for the different programs so there might be a need to assess the projects that were added through insertion because the insertion was not part of the budget request,'' he said.

Marcos said they are '' starting to see some project proposals that do not have the appropriate program of work, no appropriate documentation, and no clear direction of where the money would be spent. So we will clarify that”. Jaspearl Tan/DMS