By Tracy Cabrera
SAN MIGUEL, Manila — With Congress set to convene for its second regular session on July 24, the Marcos Jr. administration is asking the legislature to allocate more than ₱7.2 trillion for its 2027 national budget.
According to acting budget secretary Kim Robert De Leon, the proposed budget is ₱407 billion, or 6 percent, more than the ₱6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, and will be equivalent to 21.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Next year’s budget under National Budget Memorandum No. 158, was posted on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)’s official website did not contain project details because it was meant to only guide agencies in seeking funding from Congress.
De Leon explained that at this stage in the budget process, DBM is already expected to know key items in an agency’s budget, some of which will likely be featured in the President’s State of the Nation Address also set on July 24.
“In crafting the proposed [Fiscal Year] 2027 budget, the government is confronted with a very narrow fiscal space, further constrained by funding pressures from automatically appropriated items, such as the National Tax Allotment shares of LGUs (local government units) and interest payments, as well as the requirements of newly-enacted laws and recurrent mandatory expenditures,” the memorandum read.
“As such, all proposed (Programs, Activities and Projects) should have undergone the necessary review and approval by relevant oversight agencies or committees within the prescribed budget preparation timelines to be considered for funding in the proposed FY 2027 Budget,” it added.
De Leon admitted that the “very narrow fiscal space” is limited by automatically appropriated items, such as the national tax allotments of local government units and rising interest payments.
“Debt service or interest payments are projected to reach ₱950 billion in 2026, a 12-percent increase that outpaces revenue growth, as shown by the government’s reduced growth target,” he noted.
The 2026 growth target was scaled back to 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent due to lower-than-expected performance and global uncertainties, like rising global oil prices driven and the flood control graft scandal, which slowed infrastructure spending and dampened private consumption.
ia/xf
