The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman told the British business and financial community on Thursday that the Philippine budget is committed to sustainability and socioeconomic agenda.
This, as she shared at the Philippine Economic Briefing in London, United Kingdom, that the social services sector will receive a major share of two trillion from the country’s total 2023 budget.
The sector’s budget covers health and education programs. The education sector will get a P896.08 billion share, the top priority as mandated by the Constitution.
Pangandaman added that the health sector has one of the biggest increases, with the Department of Health given P314.7 billion.
She said this part of the “commitment to strengthen our healthcare system following lessons from the pandemic, as well as the mandate of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to expand access to affordable and inclusive healthcare nationwide.”
For better social protection, she said the Department of Social Welfare and Development will get nearly P200 billion.
Economic services followed social services with a P1.6 trillion budget covering public infrastructure investment to boost economic growth and job creation, as well as agriculture and agrarian reform for food security.
Pangandaman believes priority expenditures and legislative and budget reforms can even push the country to exceed economic targets.
The Philippine economy grew 7.6% in 2022 according to the Philippine Statistics Authority on Thursday, on the day of the London economic briefing.
“We are on track with our Agenda for Prosperity and I am confident that as long as we stay the path, we will also achieve our targets of single-digit poverty levels and upper-middle income class status as planned,” Pangandaman said. –Katrina Gracia Consebido-ag
