After a week-long delay and a bout of public criticism, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the P6.235-trillion 2025 national budget into law on Monday, December 30, but not without vetoing P194 billion in line items.

In Marcos’ line veto messages, he justified his modifications to the budget, emphasizing the need to align it with the government’s priorities by directly addressing Filipinos’ needs.

“We must be clearly driven by this goal because as much as we want to do everything we wish for our people immediately and all at the same time, our finite resources compel us to exercise sound judgment to ensure our fiscal sustainability — we must not compromise our future, thus, the imperative need to program our priorities,” wrote Marcos.

Here is the Senate copy of the President’s line veto message. A copy was also furnished to the House of Representatives:

Highlights

DPWH programs, projects

The President vetoed over P26 billion from the Department of Public Works and Highways’ budget, previously criticized for having one that’s higher than that of the Department of Education.

Marcos said that the DPWH programs, projects, and activities in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), or the version of the budget that he proposed to Congress, were consistent with his administration’s Build Better More infrastructure program, and took into account urgency of need, implementation readiness, and agency absorptive capacity.

The vetoed items did not make the cut.

“In this regard, the items of appropriation under the DPWH which are not consistent with the foregoing…. in the total amount of P26,065,700,000, are hereby vetoed and marked accordingly,” he said.

Unprogrammed appropriations

Marcos vetoed some P168.24 billion in unprogrammed appropriations (UA), which are allotments for government priority programs that can only proceed if the government acquires extra revenue.

In personal finance, this is like budgeting for something important to you, but still being flexible enough to understand that you might not end up making the purchase because you did not get any additional income, such as a bonus or loan.

The President said that expenditures should generally be within the parameters of programmed resources as envisioned by the government’s fiscal planners. He again went back to the allotments he had made in the NEP.

“The inclusion of the UA and its purposes in the FY 2025 NEP was the result of meticulous consideration of the priorities and the agencies’ capacity for implementation, balanced with the judicious programming of existing and anticipated resources,” he said.

Guided by this, Marcos vetoed P168,240,648,000 worth of items of appropriation under the UA. He also vetoed the UA in the special provision for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.

Conditional implementation

Apart from the two directly vetoed items, Marcos also enumerated a list of national programs in the 2025 budget that were to be conditionally implemented.

“It is the shared fiscal responsibility of the whole government to ensure that the people’s funds are utilized in accordance with their authorized purposes, and that the programs, projects, and activities are implemented in compliance with laws, policies, rules, and regulations,” he said.

Among the programs in this section include the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), a social aid program for Filipinos earning less than the minimum wage.

Marcos also outlined the need for strict adherence to guidelines for rice tariffication and national disaster risk reduction and management funds. – Rappler.com