President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration is seeking a P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
“Ang proposed budget para sa susunod na taon ay nasa 5.024 trillion – ang pinakamataas na budget sa ating kasaysayan,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in a press briefing.
Roque said the proposal would be submitted to Congress on Monday, Aug. 23.
The 2022 budget is 11.5 percent higher than the P4.5 trillion 2021 budget.
Thirty-eight percent or P1.922 trillion of the 2022 budget will be allocated to social services, which includes the health and education sectors.
The economic services sector, which includes infrastructure and the “Build. Build, Build” program, was given the second-highest allocation at P1.474 trillion or 29.3 percent of the proposed budget.
Roque said P862.7 billion would be allocated to the general public services sector, while the defense sector would be given P224.4 billion.
More than P541.3 billion will be used to settle the country’s debts.
Cabinet departments will be given the following budgets, according to the proposal:
- Department of Education – P773.6 billion
- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – P686.1 billion
- Department of the Interior and Local Government – P250.4 billion
- Department of Health (DOH) – P242 billion
- Department of National Defense – P222 billion
- Department of Social Welfare and Development – P191.4 billion
- Department of Transportation – P151.3 billion
- Department of Agriculture and National Irrigation Administration – P103.5 billion
- Department of Labor and Employment – P44.9 billion
Roque said the DPWH budget was 2.5 times higher than the DOH budget because it was the agency that would build facilities to be used in the government’s Covid-19 response. John Ezekiel J. Hirro