MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a review of the priority projects that were defunded by Congress in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Marcos met with his Cabinet secretaries on Tuesday, January 7, to discuss how to go about the budget cuts. Agencies like the Department of Transportation (DOTR) saw a budget reduction of around P92 billion compared to the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“We have to reexamine so that the programs that we wanted – that we put in the NEP, can somehow be restored,” Marcos said during the meeting in Malacañang.
“For the rest of the departments, I need you to give me the priorities – the things that we prioritized in the NEP that were removed in terms of budgeting, in terms of appropriations,” he told the secretaries.
In a press briefing following the meeting, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that due to limited time, they were unable to discuss all the items, with only two out of the four agenda points being addressed.
The DOTR’s projects were one of the points of discussion, with DOTR Secretary Jaime Bautista discussing the agency’s challenges to implementing big ticket transport projects such as the North–South Commuter Railway.
Some of the major issues affecting implementation primarily include right-of-way concerns.
Bautista said there is already an inter-agency committee to discuss the issues which include the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, and the Office of the Solicitor General.
“Basically these are normal issues that we encounter when we implement infrastructure projects no, right of way, funding, coordination sometimes delay some of the contractors, sometimes there are technical issues that need to implement, redesign or we need to redesign the project ‘no,” Bautista said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Bautista cited the LRT-1 extension to Niog, which had to be realigned since a flyway was built before it could be finished.
Asked how the budget cut would affect these projects, Bautista said there would be a “very minor effect.”
“We should be able to continue our projects . There were some reductions in our budget but we should be able to fund these from the loan proceeds. We’re happy that the government’s share of most of our infrastructure projects were not reduced, so we will continue to implement these programs,” he said.
Some of the assistance to these projects fell under the unprogrammed appropriations. Bautista said they should be able to access the funds in the latter part of 2025.
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