Tweaking the nat’l budget

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LEADERS of the Senate and the House of Representatives were ecstatic that they had passed the General Appropriations Act of 2025 or the national budget in record time, and it was signed into law by President Bongbong Marcos before the year 2024 ended.

It was a P6.3-trillion spending legislation, and most senators and congressmen were happy with it, including the President, although he would later call it “suboptimal,” presumably meaning it can still be improved.  But since it is now a law, the government can live with it and operate within its limits.

Now we see the start of a series of presidential directives that can be considered as effectively tweaking the budget.

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First, Marcos directed the Department of Budget and Management to restore the P400 million branding budget of the Department of Tourism. The Chief Executive said this restoration is imperative to sustain the momentum the department already has in the international scene.

Next, President Marcos ordered the restoration of the original funding for the Philippine National Police’s information technology (IT) program and the return of the additional intelligence funds of the police force.

In a press briefing in Malacañang, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla disclosed that the PNP’s various IT projects incurred significant budget cuts in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), and he had lobbied with the President that these cuts be restored so that police service to the public would not be derailed.

These included the enhancement of the PNP’s clearance system, which saw its budget reduced to P232 million from P600 million in the National Expenditure Program (NEP); establishment of the Safe Camp Security System, which was cut to P161 million from P472 million; and the PNP drug-related data integration and generation system, which had its funding slashed to P196 million from P533 million.

Remulla said that while these vital IT programs were being underfunded, nearly P1 billion was allocated for the purchase of all-terrain amphibious vehicles for the Bicol region, and an additional P500 million was added to the PNP’s intelligence fund.

The President instructed Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman to revert the PNP’s IT program budget to its original amount and eliminate the additional P500 million allocated to the intelligence fund. The reversion of the budget cuts and the removal of the intelligence fund will free up funds that will be reallocated to support the integration and enhancement of the 911 emergency hotline system.

These changes just show how the House managed to juggle fund requests of the PNP to suit their personal concerns.  Proof is the question: Why all-terrain amphibious vehicles for then Bicol Region only?

After calling the budget “suboptimal,” the President tried to do some damage control by ordering government agencies to review their budgets and check if funding for their priority projects this year have been cut, given the big difference between the original spending plan submitted by Malacañang to Congress and the final 2025 GAA.

He said he would sit down with each department to find out what happened to their budgets to ensure that the government’s focus remains on programs and projects critical to the administration’s socioeconomic program.

The cracks are showing in this hastily prepared national budget, and the gaps — or rather, the blanks — must be filled before these are publicly noticed.

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