‘Maximize your funds,’ Marcos tells agencies with budget cuts

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the P6.326 trillion national budget for 2025, or the General Appropriations Act for 2025, in a ceremony in Malacañang on Monday morning, Rizal Day, on December 30, 2024. "The 2025 National Budget underscores the Administration's commitment to social services, education and health, while also addressing the critical needs for infrastructure development and agricultural support," the Palace said. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

President Marcos has directed agencies that have suffered cuts in their funding for 2025 to “maximize” their allotments following cuts imposed by Congress and the presidential veto that slashed P194 billion from General Appropriations Act (GAA).

At a press briefing, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the President gave particular attention to remedial measures to address the possible delays caused by the reduction in the Department of Transportation (DOTr) funding, mainly involving big-ticket railway projects.

“The important thing to remember is the President said, ‘maximize on what you can do for those that were approved, the program,” he said.

“And then (for) the unprogrammed (items), maybe we give prioritization there when the available funds will come,” Bersamin added, quoting the President.

Bersamin disclosed this after he emerged from the Cabinet’s first full meeting with President Marcos Jr. this year to discuss the implementation of the 2025 GAA worth P6.326 trillion.

He said the meeting also tackled the delays in implementing flagship infrastructure programs, as Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista reported.

The 2025 GAA, signed by the President on Dec. 30, has been widely criticized for supposedly bloating the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget with more than P1 trillion while scrimping on other departments.

Among the agencies that suffered budget cuts in the 2025 GAA is the DOTr, with its proposed P180.14 billion funding reduced to P87.24 billion in the final version of the spending law.

Bautista briefed the President about 16 flagship infrastructure projects.

including the “issues, concerns and ways forward,” with the DOTr handling around 69 infrastructure flagship projects out of 186 approved by the National Economic Development Authority Board.

The official admitted that the projects are hounded by right-of-way and funding issues.

“There are also issues about relocation of ISF (informal settler families) and relocation of utilities (as well as) issues about registration of properties,” he said.

The 69 projects that need to be implemented “as soon as possible” include the 147 km North-South Commuter Railway, 33-kilometer Metro Manila Subway Project, 23-km MRT 7 Project, Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 Extension Project, and the planned Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 4 Project, according to Bautista.

Also included as the DOTr’s priority projects are the New Cebu International Container Port, Philippine National Railway South Long Haul, Mindanao Railway, and the New Dumaguete Airport Development, the DOTr official said.

According to Bautista, the DOTr is working to complete the NSCR, which runs from Clark Freeport in Pampanga to Calamba City in Laguna, for a partial operation scheduled by the end of 2028.