Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 24) — The Department of Budget and Management announced Wednesday it is proposing ₱4.3-trillion national budget for 2021.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said in a briefing that his agency is still determining the budget ceilings for the departments in the Executive branch.
The ceilings are expected to be finalized by the first week of July, after which the spending program will be submitted to the Office of the President for inclusion in President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation address later that month.
In case the formal budget proposal fails to meet that deadline, Avisado said it will be ready by the second week of August.
Avisado said the 2021 budget will focus on labor intensive projects and activities aimed at giving income opportunities to millions of workers in both private and public sectors who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
“All of these programs are devoted to priorities of national government in line with our desire to continue to combat this pandemic,” he added.
It will be recalled that the ₱4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 was formally signed by Duterte six days into the new fiscal year.
The bulk of that budget was earmarked for social and economic services, but some of the amount was later realigned to fund the country’s COVID-19 outbreak response programs.
As of June 22, ₱355.6 billion has been released for COVID-19 mitigation efforts, according to Avisado.
