Presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday said his incoming administration is looking at potential budget sources to augment not just its spending ability during the start of his term but also to prepare for 2023.
But when asked in a briefing yesterday if selling government assets is an option to raise more funds, Marcos said he has always been wary about it.
“As a matter of principle, I’d rather not,” he added.
Marcos acknowledged most of the 2022 budget has been disbursed “but not all of it has been spent, so we still have some breathing room.”
He said with little funds left, his administration has to look for potential fund sources.
He said this goes hand in hand with the preparation of the 2023 budget and other plans his administration has set out to do as soon as possible.
“We will have to look to the new budget, the budget for 2023 which is presently being written. We have to look at that to find sufficient funds for things that we want to do,” he said.
Marcos said one option to be pursued in raising funds is to “move some public expenditure away from non-investment expenditure to more investment-led expenditures.”
He did not elaborate but investment expenditure are spending that stimulate the economy such as infrastructure.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said about 90 percent of the 2022 budget had been spent, making it urgent for the incoming Marcos government to find funds for a possible stimulus package to revive the economy and sustain the country’s efforts to recover from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Marcos, meanwhile, said the Philippines will be “very much involved” in the Indo-Pacific strategy being pursued by the United States.
He said it was among the topics discussed when US charges d’ affaires Heather Variava paid a call on him yesterday.
“Now, the survival or the stability of the global economy, or even just the regional economy, is going to depend on the partnerships we make with other countries. That’s why it’s going to be very important. We have to open as much of the economy as we can to trade and that’s where this kind of treaties come in,” he said.
The US said the proposed Indo-Pacific economic initiative is aimed at setting up common regional standards for sectors including supply-chain resilience, clean energy, infrastructure, digital trade and cybersecurity.
