00:00The economic managers of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. cried when the 2025 national budget was decided to improve the lives of Filipinos.
00:10This is Joshua Garcia's first report.
00:14At the same time, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. passed a 6 trillion Pesos national budget for the next year.
00:21It includes more than 134 billion Pesos worth of projects.
00:25This is an online item because it is not considered to be in line with the priorities of the government.
00:31The Department of Budget and Management also criticized it.
00:34In his press briefing, the DBM said that the education sector remains a top priority, followed by infrastructure and others.
00:431.053 trillion.
00:47Well, the DPWH is 1.034 trillion.
00:53So education comes first.
00:57DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoana explained that they are considering the projects that are not in line with the socio-economic agenda of the current administration and still need to be studied.
01:09There are a lot of local projects that are not ready for implementation and it will take us some time anyway to make sure that we can implement it immediately.
01:20So these are the things that we have seen and I think we can postpone it for the time being.
01:26According to the DBM, projects such as assistance to the Kaposangkita Program or ACAP will remain.
01:31But before the funds are released, the DSWD, DOLE and NEDA will need to conduct monitoring for the continuous implementation of the projects that are needed.
01:42In his statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamina also insisted that the budget for 2025 is in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
01:51I want to tell all of you that there will not be an unconstitutional budget.
02:00This is the interplay between the Congress and the Executive Branch.
02:07In order to ensure strict legal monitoring, 12 special provisions are included in the conditional implementation,
02:14including some important programs of the DSWD, such as ACAP and PAYAPAT Masagalang Pamayanan or Pamanang Program.
02:21Meanwhile, the economic team of the government is doing well in 2025.
02:25According to NEDA, the 2025 National Budget will focus on improving the lives of Filipinos,
02:30where the sector of agriculture, renewable energy and digitalization in the country will also be strengthened.
02:36Our fourth quarter was good.
02:41We are confident that we will hit our growth target.
02:47Our growth target is between 6 to 7 percent.
02:51So far, from quarter 1 to quarter 3, our growth rate is at 5.8 percent.
02:59We think we will hit that target.
03:05According to the Department of Finance,
03:07it also ensures that every cent added to the budget for 2025 will go to the right programs and projects for the country.
03:16Joshua Garcia for Pambansang TV in Paco, Philippines.
