President Marcos Jr. has committed to fund priority projects of the administration in 2025 especially those involving infrastructure development and food security, Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Arsenio Baliscan said yesterday.
Balisacan said the President met members of his economic team along with Senate President Francis Escudero and Speaker Martin Romualdez in Malacanang on Thursday to discuss the 2025 budget and ensure projects aimed at achieving or attaining the goals and targets in the Philippine Development Plan are achieved.
The meeting also tackled the need to fund the programs that will enhance food security and improve access and quality to infrastructure.
“The President wanted to get the assurance the priority projects of this administration, projects that (have) been so well identified as critical to achieving that social and economic transformation that it wants to achieve in the medium term are funded in 2025 and that are sustained also in the coming years,” he said.
Balisacan said Congress had committed to keeping in sync with the administration in terms of funding and implementing key projects especially infrastructures in the succeeding years.
He, however, did not name the priority projects that should be funded.
Asked if new taxes would be needed to generate enough funds, Balisacan said there is no need to impose new taxes but there are some new measures that have been identified by the Department of Finance (DOF) to raise additional funds.
“We have a few of those new measures that had been identified in several fora and by (Finance) Secretary Ralph Recto and the DBCC (Development of Budget Coordination Committee). But the key to enhancing our revenue now is the improvement in the administration of our tax laws,” he said.
Balisacan said in terms of enhancing food security, the Marcos administration remains committed especially to making rice more affordable and accessible for all Filipinos.
“Our thrust is to continue improving food security…it has three dimensions: access, affordability and availability of food in broad terms,” he said, when asked if the P20 per kilo of rice is still possible.
Balisacan said the government is committed to bring down the current prices of P50 per kilo of rice and ensure that it would be available throughout the country.
He said the prices of rice, however, are influenced by external factors such as global market trends and natural disasters which are all beyond the government’s control.
He said the government is closely monitoring market trends to achieve its goal of lowering the prices.
