Manila, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the General Appropriations Act (GAA), the second under his administration. Republic Act (RA) No. 10964 was signed alongside the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act or RA No. 10963.
In his speech during the ceremonial signing, the President said that the timely passage of these laws are the “biggest Christmas gifts for the Filipino people”.
Dubbed as “a budget that reforms and transforms”, the 2018 budget represents the breadth of the ambition of the Duterte administration, funding the grand ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure program, Free Quality Tertiary Education, Free Irrigation, among other programs.
The 3.767-trillion budget is the Philippines’ largest budget to date, 12.4% higher than the 2017 national budget and 25.5% higher than the 2016 budget; it amounts to 21.6 percent of GDP. It will support the government’s objectives of achieving robust and inclusive growth of 7 to 8 percent in 2018.
The budget is the result of rigorous preparation on the part of the DBM and intense deliberations in both houses of Congress. The General Appropriations Bill was successfully shepherded in the House of Representatives by Committee on Appropriations Chairperson, Congressman KarloNograles, and in the Senate by Finance Committee Chairperson, Senator Loren Legarda.
