Palace: Marcos Jr. thoroughly reviewing 2025 budget

Provisions must conform with Constitution

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos is moving to ensure that the 2025 budget will be compliant with the Constitution and has been “most prudent” in allocating resources, Malacañang said yesterday, following calls to scrap the items in the spending bill that may not withstand legal scrutiny.

Concerns have been raised over “unconstitutional” provisions in the P6.352-trillion budget bill for next year, including the inserted hefty increase in the funding for public works that made it bigger than that for education, the sector that should be given the highest budgetary priority under the Constitution.

Among those who assailed the spending bill passed by Congress was Marcos’ eldest sister Sen. Imee Marcos, who had pointed out that the P1.113-trillion public works budget is higher than the overall P925 billion allocation for basic, higher and technical vocation education.

Imee, who labeled the proposed budget as “very very bad,” added that the public works outlay should be slashed by at least P188 billion to make it compliant with the 1987 Constitution.

Another senator, Juan Miguel Zubiri, had expressed hope that the concerns over the proposed 2025 budget would be addressed to stave off a possible legal challenge before the Supreme Court that might lead to a decision declaring the budget unconstitutional.

Asked to react to calls to remove the unconstitutional items in the spending measure, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that efforts are underway to ensure that the budget would follow the Charter.

“The President and the Cabinet are right now (with or without the calls) thoroughly reviewing the various items of the GAA (General Appropriations Act) to make them conform to the Constitution, and to see to it that the budget prioritizes the main legacy thrusts of the administration,” Bersamin said.

“The President has been most prudent in programming and spending of our limited fiscal resources,” he added.

The signing of the proposed 2025 budget into law will be held on Dec. 30.

In a recent press briefing at the Senate, Imee said the spending bill is “questionable” and the issues surrounding it cannot be solved by a simple line veto by the President.

According to her, Marcos should instead return the appropriations measure to the bicameral conference committee (bicam) to restore the funding cuts on education and health.

Marcos has ruled out the possibility of asking lawmakers to correct the controversial items in the budget, saying there is no existing procedure to do so.

The President has also given an assurance that he would restore the funding cuts in education and scrutinize the projects in the proposed budget to determine if they are really necessary.

“We had to have a look because there were many changes from the budget requests from the different departments and we have to put it back in the same shape that we had first requested. So, unfortunately... I am only left now with the veto power because the bicam is over. The House has approved it. The Senate has approved it,” Marcos told reporters at Villamor Air Base last Dec. 19.