MANILA, Philippines — While President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos did not request higher confidential and intelligence funds, his admin was seen requesting higher travel funds for the proposed national budget for 2025 with P24.3 billion, the National Expenditure Program for 2025 revealed.
According to the Department of Budget Management’s National Expenditure Program for 2025, the Office of the President’s confidential funds are maintained at P2.25 billion, while a total of P2.31 billion has been requested for intelligence funds. This amount remains consistent with last year’s request.
The allocation for the Confidential and Intelligence Fund in the proposed P6.35 trillion national budget for 2025 has been reduced to P10.2 billion, down from P12 billion in the 2024 budget.
This is a decrease of 16 percent, according to DBM.
According to Pangandaman, the 2025 budget is also 10.1 percent higher than the fiscal year 2024 budget of P5.768 trillion.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman presented the proposed P6.352 trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2025 to Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez during a ceremony at Romualdez Hall in the House of Representatives on Monday.
Additionally, the Marcos government has requested a total of P24,359,001,000 for his administration’s traveling budget, higher than its P21,843,835 billion budget last year. Although the Office of the President’s traveling budget for 2025 amounts to P1,054,185,000, this remains lower compared to the P1,148,424,000 budget proposed last year.
To compare, his travel funds alone remain over a billion for the next year despite a decrease in the office’s request for the 2025 national budget, the NEP data showed.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Vice President’s confidential and intelligence funds were stripped off for the 2025 budget although former Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte said her office did not request it for next year.
