President Marcos: Government looking to restore cuts in ‘suboptimal budget’

MANILA, Philippines — Describing the 2025 national budget as “suboptimal,” President Marcos yesterday gave assurance that key government agencies that sustained budget cuts would have their funding restored for vital programs.

Speaking to reporters in Leyte, the President said the administration is exploring alternative measures to secure adequate funding for urgent government projects.

“What we are doing is that those who have lost too much in the NEP, in the National Expenditure Program, that were not given funds, we are looking for savings to return those funds,” Marcos said in Filipino.

“This is what we are doing. So, maybe – as I said, the original budget can be described as suboptimal. We are working to make it optimal once again,” the President said.

The NEP is the version of the national budget Malacañang submits to Congress after the President delivers the State of the Nation Address every fourth Monday of July.

Marcos recently met with heads of various agencies at Malacañang to review their 2025 appropriations.

Marcos underscored the administration’s focus on securing funding for critical sectors, including education, health care and housing.

Apparently, the vetoes made by the Chief Executive to the 2025 General Appropriations Act were not sufficient to address funding issues of certain departments after Congress made major amendments to the NEP.

On Thursday, Marcos met with education officials to review the agency’s 2025 outlay and ensure the implementation of priority projects.

“We have to be able to show that that’s (education) the priority,” Marcos said.

For DepEd, Congress only approved P737 billion for this year from its proposed P748-billion appropriation.

Allocations reduced by Congress were for the creation of new school personnel positions, the Basic Education Facilities Fund and the implementation of the DepEd Computerization Program.

The lower budget for new school personnel positions will “exacerbate the teacher shortage,” according to DepEd.

The President also concurred with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)’s plan to study options for financing its unfunded programs.

While TESDA’s budget increased by P20.73 billion in the 2025 GAA, some of its key programs were not funded this year.

Marcos also held meetings with the heads of the Departments of Public Works and Highways and Tourism to find ways to finance unfunded programs.

The President also earlier ordered the reinstatement of the P400-million branding budget for the DOT to maintain the country’s momentum in boosting its international image.

Marcos directed the Department of Budget and Management to source the amount for the DOT from the President’s contingency fund.

On Thursday, the President said he wants to recover funds for the DPWH’s foreign-assisted projects.

During a meeting with public works officials at Malacañang, Marcos noted that the executive branch had requested for P70-billion funding for the projects, but lawmakers only allocated P23 billion in the budget bill they passed.

The Chief Executive said the focus of the efforts to restore the budget should be on projects that would “make a difference in people’s lives.”

The President also directed the DPWH to prioritize the maintenance of agency projects, feasibility studies and right of way issues.

Under the P6.326-trillion national budget for 2025 signed into law last Dec. 30, the total DPWH budget rose to P1.088 trillion from P900 billion under the expenditure program proposed by the executive branch.

However, a number of the agency’s programs, activities and projects suffered budget cuts. Other items that saw reductions in their budget were the bridge program, network development program, tourism road infrastructure program, roads leveraging linkages of industry and trade program and foreign-assisted projects.

Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of items in the 2025 budget approved by Congress, saying they were not in line with his administration’s priorities.

More than 170 public works projects worth P26 billion and 15 unprogrammed appropriations worth P168.24 billion were scrapped from this year’s national budget. — Alexis Romero