President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed into law the P5.268-trillion budget for 2023, describing its swift passage as a “fine Christmas gift” for Filipinos.
Marcos said the spending plan “defines and gives muscle to the roadmap that the government intends to do for the next year.”
“We are doing all the structural changes that we need, the legislature has been very cooperative in making amendments… that are necessary to the laws in terms of investments, financial policy,” said the President during the ceremonial signing in Malacañang last December 16.
“All of these elements that are important for us to position ourselves in the new… economy after the pandemic. It bodes well for our future, for the next year, we know that we are all together… and we are moving on the way to the transformation of our economy,” he added.
This came after Congress ratified the proposed spending plan through a bicameral committee last December 5.
READ: Congress ratifies P5.268T 2023 national budget
The bicam’s version of the 2023 General Appropriations Act restored the P150-million confidential and intelligence fund for the Department of Education (DepEd) and the P10-billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Earlier, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Marcos will veto two to three items in the spending plan, noting the bicameral committee’s re-alignment of around P70 billion in the 2023 national budget.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Office of the Press Secretary
