PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday signed into law the P5.768 trillion General Appropriations Act of 2024, with a reminder to all government agencies to “honor the taxpayers” by properly spending public funds.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said there were no direct vetoes in Republic Act 11975, or “An Act Appropriating the funds for the Operation of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines from January 1 to December 31, 2024,” but there were some “conditional and general observations” made on certain provisions of the budget that will be threshed out in the Implementing Rules and Regulations to be issued by appropriate departments.
The DBM chief did not give additional details as to the specific provisions that were subject of the observations.
The President, during the signing ceremony in Malacañang, said the yearly budget is an annual renewal of the social contract between the government and the taxpayers, whom he said will “get a full rebate” on the taxes that they paid the government.
“We are working for the people, not for ourselves. We are working for the country, not for ourselves. Honor the taxpayers who make the budget possible and in doing so, we will (be) closer to the brighter tomorrow that we aspire for Bagong Pilipinas that we all envision for our people,” he said.
He reminded everyone, especially those working in agencies that implement the government programs and projects, to ensure that the budget is spent accordingly.
“Red tape that leads to underspending and overspending that disregards legal guard rails are two sides of the same coin. Implementation delay and illegal deviations inflict the same havoc of denying the people of the progress and development that they deserve,” he said.
He likewise urged government leaders to spend their appropriations judiciously, as he hinted that he is not in favor of leaving debts to the future generation.
“Debt is not the kind of inheritance that we want to leave those who will come after us.
Good fiscal stewardship imposes upon us the discipline not to be led into the temptation of bloating what we owe. Good government dictates upon us the duty to spend the appropriations we have cobbled together for the correct purposes, the right way, on time, and on budget,” he said.
Among those present during the signing of the budget law were members of the Senate led by Senate President Juan Miguel Zuburi, members of the House of Representative led by Speaker Martin Romuladez, and the Cabinet led by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Vice President Sara Duterte, who had recently hugged the headlines following issues about her office’s confidential fund allocations, was not present during the event.
‘BATTLE PLAN’
Marcos described the budget as the “battle plan in fighting poverty and combatting illiteracy, in producing food and ending hunger, in protecting our homes, in securing our border, treating the sick, keeping our people healthy, creating jobs, and funding livelihoods.”
He, however, said that the budget is dependent on the tax collection and that the government would not be able to fund all plans for the country and the people, nor would it be enough to wipe out infrastructure backlogs and the like.
“How I wish that we had ‘unli’ revenues to realize our country’s unlimited potential. Sadly, the will is there, the wherewithal perhaps not always so. Like any government, we are curtailed by what we can collect, by what our tax coffers contain,” he said.
Pangandaman said the President reminded the different government agencies to “spend, spend, spend” following the problems encountered during the initial implementation of the 2023 budget, which resulted in low economic growth due to underspending in the first half of the year.
She said that as of this month, about 98 percent of the 2023 budget had already been released and 80 percent of which had already been spent after the government implemented catch-up plans.
The 2024 national budget, which is equivalent to 21.7 percent of gross domestic product, is 9. 5 percent higher compared to this year’s P5.268 trillion budget.
The social services sector, composed of health, education, culture, and manpower development, as well as social security, welfare, and employment, among other social services, will receive the largest allocation in next year’s budget.
‘RIGHT ON TIME’
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri thanked the President for “his swift signing of the 2024 national budget.”
“Right on time to welcome the new year. We are proud to have produced what I think is the best budget we have seen in years, with a good balance of social services, infrastructure development, and of course defense and security – including a much-deserved increase in the budget of our Coast Guard, who are at the frontlines of our continued efforts to protect our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Zubiri said.
He said the Senate also heeded the people’s concern in not allocating confidential and intelligence funds to agencies not directly involved in intelligence works and law enforcement, which he said will make the 2024 budget “more transparent and our government agencies and offices more accountable in their spending.”
“With the budget in place, I enjoin our government agencies and offices to double down on the effective implementation of their projects and programs, to ensure that every cent of the budget is felt by our people,” he said.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said he has “no comment” on the President signing the national budget for 2024.
“That’s presidential prerogative just as any citizen has the prerogative, too, of questioning the constitutionality of the budget law,” Pimentel said, adding he is now studying what legal actions to take with regards the bloated unprogrammed appropriations that members of the bicameral budget committee approved.
Pimentel has questioned the P455 billion unprogrammed funds inserted during the bicameral discussions. He said such addition is unconstitutional and can be questioned before the Supreme Court.
AKAP PROGRAM
Speaker Martin Romualdez said the House leadership is eyeing to continue funding for the new P60 billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) under the 2024 budget in 2025 to “help families who are considered almost poor.”
The Speaker said he was hoping that the implementation of AKAP would succeed in 2024 to allow the House to fund the program again in 2025 and the years ahead, along with other assistance programs in the national budget.
“We intend this to be a continuing program to help our people. Thus, it is critical that we should make it work in its first year of implementation,” said Romualdez as he welcomed the signing by the President of the 2024 GAA or Republic Act No. 11975.
The program aims to extend cash assistan ce to poor and low-income families earning a monthly income of P23,000 or less. The beneficiaries, composed of 12 families, would receive a one-time cash aid of P5,000.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the AKAP program is meant to complement the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) by extending the subsidy to beneficiaries that include factory workers, drivers, construction workers and other persons with blue collar jobs.
He said the new national budget “will afford the Marcos administration with a fairly good deal of resources to fund manifold social protection programs for poor and other underprivileged Filipinos as well as invest in infrastructure modernization, education and healthcare, and agriculture and food security leading toward high and inclusive growth.”
Villafuerte noted that the 2024 GAA has doubled the funding for the pension program for elderly Filipinos to P49.8 billion that will enable the government to increase the monthly pension of an estimated 4.1 million indigent seniors from P500 to P1,000.
To help ordinary consumers reeling from soaring rice prices, Villafuerte said that lawmakers have also included in the budget a rice voucher system called Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD) under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program of the DSWD.
He said the DSWD’s AICS, which target seven million families, was given a higher allocation so the target beneficiaries can get CARD vouchers to buy rice at a discount. — With Raymond Africa and Wendell Vigilia
