Palace: Nothing ‘scandalous’ in 2025 national budget

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PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. had purged the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), or the national budget, of unnecessary items and re-channeled billions worth of funds to projects and programs that create social good, spur progress, and serve the welfare of the people.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin made the statement yesterday following a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) pastoral letter issued on Sunday that called out the government’s supposed “scandalous misuse of public funds and resources” and the “questionable insertions, cuts, and adjustments in the national budget.”

Bersamin took exemption to the CBCP statement, stressing that the President had taken significant steps to ensure that the 2025 national budget is free of unnecessary expenditures by directly vetoing the “largest amount of appropriations” in the country’s budget history.

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He said that within the powers vested on the president, Marcos rechanneled billions of funds to important projects and programs that would help spur the country’s progress and address the needs and promote the welfare of the people.

He also pointed out that the President ordered the implementation of stricter conditionalities for budget releases and made sure that budget alignments are within national priorities and protected from partisan interests.

“Having undergone adjustments permitted by law, the funds will be released transparently and in accordance with good governance principles and laws. All of this stems from the recognition that financing the budget is shouldered by the people; therefore, its implementation must honor the sacrifices they have made,” Bersamin said.

The President signed the P6.326 trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2025 last December 30, 2024, but vetoed over P194 billion worth of line items that were deemed to be inconsistent with the administration’s priorities.

He also ordered the setting of several conditionalities in implementing select programs, particularly financial assistance initiatives, funded through the GAA.

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