In a decisive move, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has instructed his Cabinet to reassess the government’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) to restore funding for essential socioeconomic projects that were previously cut by Congress. This directive was issued during the first full Cabinet meeting of the year at Malacañan Palace in Manila.
Marcos emphasized the need to realign the government’s spending with the priorities outlined in the NEP, stating, ‘We have to reexamine so that the programs that we wanted, that we put in the NEP, can somehow be restored.’ He requested detailed reports from each department on the priorities that were removed during the budgeting process.
Highlighting specific budget cuts, Marcos pointed out a PHP12-billion reduction in road maintenance funds, a PHP500-million decrease in bridge maintenance allocations, and a PHP21-billion cut in the budget for feasibility studies. He expressed readiness to engage directly with department heads to ensure the government’s actual spending aligns more closely with the NEP.
On December 30, 2024, Marcos signed the PHP6.326-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2025 into law, while vetoing over PHP194 billion in line items that he believed did not align with his administration’s priorities. He also implemented conditional measures on certain items to safeguard the prudent use of public funds.
The 2025 expenditure program represents a 9.7 percent increase over the FY 2024 budget of PHP5.768 trillion and constitutes 22 percent of the projected FY 2025 gross domestic product.