📷DBM turns over to House the proposed P6.3 trillion nat’l budget for 2025
House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro strongly criticized the proposed 2025 national budget of 6.352 trillion pesos, calling it “anti-poor, militaristic, and failing to address the urgent needs of the Filipino people.”
Rep. Castro pointed out the glaring discrepancies in budget allocations, particularly the disproportionate funding for defense and infrastructure compared to social services and education.
“While the Marcos Jr. administration boasts of allocating 15.4% of the budget to education, this is still far below the UNESCO-recommended 20% of the national budget or 6% of the GDP for education,” Rep. Castro stated. “The 977.6 billion pesos for education barely scratch the surface of the sector’s needs, especially considering the learning crisis exacerbated by the pandemic.”
The party-list representative also lambasted the 258.2 billion pesos earmarked for the Department of Defense and the 50 billion pesos for the AFP modernization program. “This militaristic approach, purportedly to address developments in the West Philippine Sea. We should demilitarize the WPS and not further militarize it. The Marcos government also earmarked P5.9 billion for intelligence expenses, and confidential expenses are at P4.36 billion, slightly higher than this year’s P4.111 billion. The red-tagging  National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has P7.8 billion for its proposed budget in 2025.
Such allocations divert crucial funds from social services and genuine economic development,” she argued.
Rep. Castro further criticized the 900 billion pesos allocated for the “Build Better More” infrastructure program. “This program primarily benefits big businesses and foreign investors while neglecting the basic needs of ordinary Filipinos,” she said.
The ACT Teachers representative called for a re-alignment of the budget to prioritize social services, particularly health, education, and social protection. “We need a budget that truly serves the people, not one that perpetuates inequality and militarization,” Rep. Castro emphasized.
“This proposed budget fails to address the root causes of poverty and inequality in our country. We demand a people-centered budget that prioritizes social services, supports workers’ rights, and promotes genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization,” she concluded.
