Panukalang 2025 national budget, sinimulan ng busisiin sa Senado
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00:00The Senate has already started the discussion on the budget for the next year.
00:04This is Daniel Manalastas' report.
00:08In the opening speech of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto
00:11at the beginning of the budget hearing in the Senate,
00:14he gave that many Filipinos, last year, were affected by poverty.
00:19And last year, we lifted 2.5 million Filipinos out of poverty,
00:26dropping the poverty rate to 15.5%.
00:30If we are able to elevate almost 8 million more Filipinos
00:35above the poverty line in the next four years,
00:38we will achieve our goal of reducing the poverty rate
00:42to a single digit of 9% by 2028.
00:47Recto also condemned the rise in inflation from January to July 2024.
00:52Recto admitted that the country's debt is increasing,
00:56but he said that no one should be held accountable.
00:59It seems that the debt is so big that it has reached 3 trillion pesos.
01:04But I will repeat, we should not be held accountable here
01:09because the debt of a country is not measured based on its current size.
01:16And to be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with a country having debts.
01:22As long as the money is used for the right purposes,
01:25such as growing the economy,
01:28which in turn creates more jobs, increases income,
01:32and provides more revenues for the government.
01:35And that, as long as the government has the ability
01:38to repay these obligations without compromising on other essential projects.
01:44Recto said to the Senators that they are on the right path
01:48and that their targets for the economy are being met.
01:51Despite external headwinds,
01:53we have grown at an average of 6.1%
01:57since President Marcos Jr. took office.
02:00This is among the fastest in the region.
02:04Even the unemployment rate, which continues to decline,
02:07was also increased by Calihim.
02:09We have 50.3 million Filipinos employed today.
02:14And 63.8% of them are engaged in formal and stable jobs.
02:21This means that more and more Filipinos are becoming part of our middle class.
02:30But for the Senators, they still need to pursue the issue of infrastructure.
02:35My estimate in infra-development,
02:37I think we are 20-30 years behind our ASEAN neighbors.
02:41What's our catch-up plan?
02:44So that we can catch up.
02:46We continue that with the Build Better More program.
02:49Apart from the national government investments funding our infrastructure projects,
02:53we also have PPP.
02:57We are trying to ramp up the implementation of the PPP code,
03:05which we believe will be a game-changer moving forward.
03:12One of the issues the Senators raised was the right-of-way issue.
03:15Maybe we should start land-banking.
03:17We know that eventually, we will put a train there.
03:22We will prioritize the right-of-way issue.
03:26It's a government project.
03:28You cannot be rejected by any person,
03:31as long as it's a government project.
03:33That is correct. There is a law on that.
03:36And there are 30,000 projects that are not being rejected in any given year.
03:41Meanwhile, some economic managers want to review our poverty threshold.
03:47I think it's due for a revisit of our poverty threshold.
03:52It's been a while, more than a decade since it was set.
03:57I think the changes in the economy warrant a revisit already of the threshold.
04:05But the reason we are keeping it constant in real terms,
04:10after adjusting for inflation, Your Honor,
04:13is just to ensure that we are tracking properly.
04:17But Secretary, there are certain things that need to be constant,
04:21but there are certain things that have to be adjusted.
04:23The Senators are expected to discuss the 2025 budget in the coming days.
04:29Daniel Manalastas for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.