President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is expected to sign the proposed 2024 budget on December 20, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Sunday.

In an interview with dzBB, Zubiri said they received an invitation from Malacanang Palace stating that Marcos would sign the budget on Wednesday.

“The plan is, Malacanang sent us an invitation. It’s on December 20…when the President will sign the budget,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri said that despite Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel’s statement that the P450 billion unprogrammed funds in the budget bill were unconstitutional, he did not receive any news that Marcos would veto any line item.

“I have not heard any news about that happening but you never know because this week, Malacanang will still be reviewing the budget. We’ll know by next week,” Zubiri said.

“Every year, there is a line item that the president vetoes. But hopefully, I’m hopeful that he would not veto what the Senate is pushing for, especially for the DND (Department of National Defense) and the Coast Guard. I hope he doesn’t veto the increase in their budgets,” he added

Zubiri said the Senate increased the budget of the DND by P8.4 billion for purchase of defense equipment while the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) budget was increased by P2.8 billion for the construction of three large vessels.

He explained that the large vessels will be built by an Australian company and it will create jobs for thousands of Filipinos.

“They will make the ships here in the Philippines. There is an Australian company that has a plant in Balamban, Cebu and they are also the manufacturers of ships for the Australian Navy. They will construct the three large ships here with the hiring of 3,000 Filipino workers,” he said.

Zubiri said that the Senate has been productive this year since it was able to pass 31 national bills including the Magna Carta for seafarers, Public-Private Partnership Act, the Internet Transactions Act, and the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act among others. Jaspearl Tan/DMS