Senator backs Marcos budget plan

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Grace Poe supported President Marcos’ move to restore funding for slashed projects in the 2025 national budget, which Marcos described as “suboptimal.”

Poe said the Senate finance committee, which she chairs, did its part in managing the government’s scarce resources when it allocated funds based on the executive’s spending plan under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

“There will always be gaps because of our scarce resources. But the President is empowered to find sources of funding to fill in the gaps in the approved General Appropriations Act,” Poe said over radio dwIZ yesterday.

“He has the power to plug in these gaps, and we support his move,” she added.

Poe was reacting to the President’s statement that he has to look for sources of funding to projects which suffered budget cuts when Congress scrutinized the NEP.

“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.

“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,” he added.