The House of Representatives passed on late Wednesday the Marcos administration's P6.352 trillion spending plan for 2025, poised to be the highest national budget ever approved by Congress.
The House took 53 days to approve House Bill 10800 or the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), but still beat its self-imposed deadline.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certified the bill as urgent, allowing the lower chamber to approve it on second and third readings on the same day, during the last session of Congress before it goes into a month-long recess.
The measure successfully hurdled the plenary with 285 affirmative votes, with only the three-member Makabayan bloc voting against it.
Progressive groups—Gabriela, ACT Teachers, and Kabataan—lamented that the proposed budget doesn't address the needs of Filipinos, citing a lack of funding for health, basic social services, and low-cost housing.
Next year's allocation is 10.1 percent higher than this year's P5.768 trillion, equivalent to 22.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
The education sector, including the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education, received the lion's share of the national allocation, P977.6 billion, or 15.4 percent of the National Expenditure Program.
It was followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways with P900 billion in funding and the Department of Health and its attached agencies with P297.6 billion.
Under the House-approved measure, the P1.3 billion budget cut in the Office of the Vice President was retained, leaving it with P733.198 million from its initial request of P2.03 billion.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez said that some members initially wanted to reduce the OVP's funding further or make it zero, but they later reached a consensus to maintain at P733 million—similar to the allocation of Vice President Sara Duterte's predecessor, Leni Robredo, in her last year in 2022.
"I understand the frustrations, but I believe that it is still important for the Office of the Vice President to have an adequate budget to continue serving the Filipinos. If we remove OVP's fund, it won't benefit our countrymen, especially those who depend on the service of the office," the House chief said.
The budget cut follows Duterte's refusal to answer lawmakers about her utilization of her confidential spending of P125 million in 2022—of which P73.287 million was disallowed by the Commission on Audit—and her skipping—not once but twice— budget deliberations for her office.
The House redirected a portion of the slashed budget initially intended for the OVP's satellite offices and certain social services to the Department of Health's Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients and the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations.
These two social programs will both receive P646.58 million each.
Earlier, Duterte claimed that "defunding" her office was part of a political attack against her ahead of the 2025 and 2028 polls. She also accused the House of plotting her impeachment.
Nevertheless, she maintained that the OVP could function even without a budget.