P5.768-trillion is the proposed national budget for 2024. (One US dollar is equivalent to P56.63 one Euro 61.35). 9.5 percent increase from the current P5.27 trillion. The social services sector – which includes health, education, culture, and manpower development – will receive 37.9 percent of the proposed 2024 budget, with an allotment totalling P2.2 trillion. This represents an 8.9 percent increase from the P2 trillion social services budget in 2023.
However, in terms of increases, the defence sector – which includes funding for land, air, and naval forces defence programs – will receive the highest budget increase, registering a 21.6 percent hike in its total budget.
Included in the budget for defence is the P50 billion budget for the "Revised AFP Modernization Program" (RAFPMP), an 81.8 percent increase from its current P27.5 billion.
Comparing the 2023 and 2024 budgets by agency, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is set to receive the biggest budget increase, with the government proposing an additional P108.3 billion for the said agency, more than doubling its budget from the current P106 billion.
Meanwhile, up to P733.2 billion in programmed "Special Purpose Funds" (SPFs) is also present in the proposed 2024 national budget, which critics dubbed the "presidential pork barrel," as these funds can easily be tapped to fund items not explicitly stated in the national budget.
The budget department defines SPFs as appropriations to cover expenditures for specific purposes for which recipient agencies have not yet been identified during budget preparation.
The proposed budget for SPFs represents a P219.8 billion hike from the current P513.6 billion allocation. One item, the "Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund" (MPBF), will receive a whopping 409-percent increase from the current P26.6 billion to P135.7 billion next year.
NEP (National Expenditure Program) explains that the said fund can be used for "deficiencies in authorized salaries, bonuses, allowances, associated premiums and other similar personnel benefits of National Government personnel, including the Personnel Services requirements for filling of, and creation of positions, and compensation adjustments, as may be authorized by law, the President of the Philippines, or the DBM (Department of Budget and Management)"
A remained P1.4-trillion budget deficit, will be financed through loans. There will be an additional domestic and external debt totaling P3 trillion next year. So the outstanding public debt by year-end 2024 will amount to P15.8 trillion.
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