President Bongbong Marcos expressed optimism that he can sign the budget bill before Christmas notwithstanding the review of changes introduced by Congress in the original proposal.
“Pipilitin ko talaga that we will finish it by then,” Marcos told reporters on Monday, Dec. 16.
While the budget is under review, the president said he is not inclined to use his line-item veto power.
“We’re not yet at that point. The process is still ongoing. We are still finalizing because ang lumabas — ang lumabas out of the bicam were just the totals. So, the details hindi pa maliwanag. So, we are returning to those and all of those elements that are — that are worrisome, are something that we’re trying to — we’re making sure that hindi ma-disadvantage,” Marcos said.
The bicam or bicameral conference committee is composed of senators and representatives that ironed out the differences in the Senate and House of Representatives versions of the spending plan. The reconciled version was ratified in both chambers last week.
Asked how changes could happen without using his veto power, Marcos said discussions between the executive and legislative branches are ongoing.
“We’ll have that discussion with the bicam essentially and the leaders of both Houses,” he added.
DPWH budget hike
Marcos also addressed concerns regarding the significant increase in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget for 2025.
The agency outlay rose by P213 billion, from P900 billion under the National Expenditure Program to P1.113 trillion after the bicameral conference committee meeting.
“Public Works is still going to be ano the top recipients of the budget because marami nga tayong ginagawa. We have big projects that we have to put in place. Infrastructure is really important and don’t forget flood control became such a big, big part of the work of the Department of Public Works. They have to build things that we never had to build before,” Marcos said.
Marcos assured the public that there will be a review of DPWH projects.
“We will look into the, dig the [insertions] in the public works and see which ones are absolutely necessary. And maybe we’ll — baka ‘yung iba, titingnan natin kung talaga bang kritikal, we’ll see, we’ll see,” Marcos said.
