MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) defended President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to review the national budget approved by Congress, assuring that efforts to address "deficiencies" will comply with the law.
The 2025 budget was signed into law amid controversy, as several lawmakers and civil society groups questioned the measure's legitimacy. The bicameral conference, which aimed to reconcile differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate's versions of the budget, faced heavy criticism for its lack of transparency.
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No party seemed completely satisfied with the budget. Even Marcos admitted that the budget was “suboptimal.”
“We are working to make it optimal once again,” the president said in an interview in Leyte in January.
Marcos has since ordered his Cabinet secretaries to review the budget and its impact on their respective agencies after he signed it into law.
“We are one with the president in addressing the validated funding deficiencies. Nevertheless, it is understood that the process and procedures to be undertaken shall strictly adhere to budgeting, accounting, and auditing laws, rules and regulations,” the DBM said in a statement on Wednesday, January 22.
Prior to the accusations of blank budgetary items, Marcos has been meeting with Cabinet secretaries one by one and by batches. From those meetings came several orders from the president that addressed the budgeting gaps from Congress.
This included Marcos’ order to the DBM to restore the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) branding budget. Congress reduced the Department of Tourism's (DOT) branding budget following the "Love the Philippines" commercial controversy, which featured clips of scenery from other countries.
Marcos intervened and insisted on restoring the budget. The DOT will source the restored funding from the contingent fund.
The DBM, however, explained that this move is justified.
“The contingent fund may be tapped to cover the funding requirements of new or urgent activities or projects of [national government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, and local government units] that must be implemented or paid during the year, subject to the approval of the president,” the DBM said.
In the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the contingent fund is under the special purpose funds, not the Office of the President (OP). However, the release of the fund still requires approval from the OP.
The DBM also said that “savings” can be used to augment deficient items in the budget.
Under Section 77 of the 2025 GAA, savings are defined as: “portions or balances of any released appropriations in this Act which have not been obligated as a result of any of the following: (a) Completion, final discontinuance, or abandonment of a program, activity, or project for which the appropriation is authorized; or (b) Implementation of measures resulting in improved systems and efficiencies and thus enabled an agency to meet and deliver the required or planned targets, programs, and services approved in this Act at a lesser cost.”
This means that previously released fundings for programs and projects that were not spent due to their completion, discontinuation or accomplishment at a lesser cost, can be counted as savings.
However, the GAA cites that if an agency's allotment remains unobligated due to its own fault, it cannot be considered a saving.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Rep. Isidro Ungab (Davao) recently accused Marcos and the DBM of approving a budget with empty items in the bicameral committee (bicam) report.
Duterte and Ungab implied that these blank budget items were intended to be filled in later.
The Palace and the DBM have since defended themselves, dismissing the allegations as "fake news."