2024 budget to be signed before Christmas

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said he would sign the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024 before Christmas Day.

Speaking to reporters in Muntinlupa City, the President said he was just waiting for the final bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2024 national budget.

«There is no bicam report yet. We're waiting for that. So, they're putting the finishing touches on it. Perhaps it will be submitted today or in the coming days,» Marcos said.

Marcos, who is scheduled to fly to Japan on Friday for the 50th Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Japan Friendship and Cooperation Commemorative Summit, said he sees no problem with the proposed budget spending for next year.

«We have been going through consultations through[out] the whole of the year for that matter, and I would be very surprised if there are other issues that will suddenly arise that we had not anticipated or hadn't resolved. So, I don't see any problem with that,» he said.

On December 11, the bicameral conference committee approved and adopted the final version of the bill containing the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

The proposed 2024 budget is equivalent to 21.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is 9.5 percent bigger than the P5.268 trillion for 2023.

Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Juan Edgardo «Sonny» Angara said the consolidated version of the 2024 GAB had no confidential and intelligence allocated for non-security agencies.

Anchored on the theme, «Agenda for Prosperity: Securing a Future-Proof and Sustainable Economy,» the proposed national budget is aligned with the Marcos administration's Eight-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and will continue to support the goals of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.