Palace mum on Imee’s tirades on the P6.352 trillion nat’l budget
Malacanang has declined to make any comments regarding Sen. Imee Marcos’ displeasure over her brother’s decision to approve the P6.352 trillion national budget for next year.
“No Palace statement regarding this as of this time,” said Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez in a message to reporters on Christmas Day.
Chavez was asked for comment on Sen. Marcos’ disapproval of the planned signing of the 2025 General Appropriations Act by President Ferdinand Marcos on December 30 to avoid a reenacted budget next year,
“Like a thief in the night before New Year! Hahaha!” the senator remarked in a message to reporters on Christmas Eve.
The elder sister of President Marcos warned the latter about illegal provisions in the spending plan, such as the P 1.1 trillion bloated funding for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which exceeded the Department of Education’s P925 billion budget.
The senator proposed that the funding for the DPWH be reduced by P188 billion in the 2025 national budget to comply with the provisions of the 1987 Constitution, which mandates that the education sector should receive the highest allocation in the General Appropriations Act.
The President’s sister wanted Mr. Marcos to return the General Appropriations Bill to the congressional bicameral conference committee to revise the controversial provisions in the P 6.352 trillion national budget for next year.
On Tuesday, the Palace said the Chief Executive will sign the national budget into law on December 30 after his scheduled events for Rizal Day, which may include a flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremony.
The enactment of next year’s national budget will avert the possibility that the government will be running on a reenacted budget during the early part of 2025.
A reenacted budget will impede the implementation of new programs or projects, given that there would be a lack of enacted appropriations.
Mr. Marcos has been meeting with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and his economic managers to meticulously review the P6.352 trillion national budget passed by Congress.
He said his economic managers would thoroughly scrutinize next year’s spending plan “item by item, line by line” for projects that were not part of the government’s National Expenditure Program but were included as “insertions” in the bill.
The President dismissed the possibility of returning the budget bill to the bicameral conference committee for revisions and said he would exercise his veto power on certain line items and provisions that were not priorities and could be deferred.
Under the 1987 Constitution, the President has the power to veto line items in an appropriation, revenue, or tariff bill, but Congress may reconsider the veto by a vote of two-thirds of all House members.
Critics have previously criticized the final version of the 2025 national budget, which included massice cuts in various public services–P86 billion from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, P 74.5 billion from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and P 12 billion from the Department of Education.
