To the PEFA Secretariat, headed by Mr. Srinivas Gurazada who is joining us online;
To our development partners: Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director General Leah Gutierrez and Country Director Pavit Ramachandran;
UNICEF Country Representative Behzad Noubary;
French Development Agency Country Director Benedicte Gazon;
United Nations Resident Coordinator Arnaud Peral;
The Global Fund, represented by Fund Portfolio Manager Mark Edward Saalfeld, also joining us online;
Representatives from the Metrobank Foundation;
To my colleagues in government: Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto, Commission on Audit (COA) Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba, and Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan;
To the members of the academe and my fellow public servants:
A pleasant afternoon!
Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
As Chair and on behalf of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Committee, I am so glad that this day has come: the unveiling of the PEFA Assessment Results. And I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to everyone who journeyed with us since the conceptualization of the 2024 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment.
I view today not just as an occasion to report the results of the PEFA assessments, but also as an opportunity to reflect on how we can achieve a PFM system that is truly responsive to the needs and aspirations of all Filipinos, especially the most vulnerable sectors of society. It is also a time for us to reinforce our commitment to utilizing our public funds to address the climate crisis and disaster risks, among other challenges, that significantly affect the lives of our citizens.
While we acknowledge that transforming our PFM system is not an easy task, I believe that nothing is impossible for those who are dedicated to achieving their purpose, especially in delivering on our promises to the people.
This is why, when President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order No. 29 in June 2023, directing the PFM Committee to digitalize and streamline our PFM processes through the full adoption of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), we embraced the challenge.
And so just three months later, in September 2023, we partnered with ADB, who so generously offered their technical assistance in developing the PFM Reforms Roadmap and conducting the PEFA Assessment. Thank you, ADB, for agreeing to be our partner as we strive to achieve our Agenda for Prosperity.
We then successfully launched both our PFM Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028 and the PEFA Assessment in October 2024.
I am proud to highlight that our country’s third PEFA assessment uses a multistakeholder and multi-framework approach. This reflects the national government’s commitment to a more inclusive and comprehensive review of our PFM system, helping us identify the gaps and create a path towards meaningful progress.
From October 2024 to April 2025, we held technical discussions, conducted fieldwork, and submitted our findings for peer review. Ultimately, we earned the PEFA Check, affirming the quality and reliability of our assessment.
This rigorous process was made possible by the dedication of the 21 agencies whose expertise and contributions were vital throughout this journey.
And today, I am honored to present to you the Philippine Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment Reports!
These five reports give us a nearly 360-degree view of our PFM landscape:
- First, the Basic PEFA Assessment, which measures the overall improvement of our PFM since the last PEFA assessment conducted in 2016. And I am proud to share that 20 out of 31 indicators are above the basic level of performance and aligned with international good practices. We passed—20 out of 31!
For the first time, the primary PEFA assessment is now supplemented by:
- The Gender-Responsive PFM, which reports the extent to which our country’s PFM responds to the unique needs of men and women, and subgroups across 9 indicators.
- We also have the Climate-Responsive PFM, which informs us whether our legal framework and systems contribute to the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation activities throughout the budget cycle.
- Next is the Child-Responsive PFM, which provides the baseline data on the emerging child-focused budgeting at the national level and the integration of children’s welfare at all stages of our PFM.
- And finally, the Disaster Resilient and Responsive-PFM, which identifies opportunities to strengthen our country’s capacity to manage disaster-related risks and manage our public funds more efficiently and effectively in post-disaster situations.
So today, we launch not just 1 but 5 assessment reports.
Once again, on:
- Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability
- Gender-Responsive PFM
- Climate-Responsive PFM
- Child-Responsive PFM
- And Disaster-Resilient and -Responsive PFM
Congratulations to all who worked on these. Let’s give them a warm round of applause!
I would also like to personally acknowledge the artists whose names are on the screen and who are present here today, who lent their masterpieces, through the generosity of the Metrobank Foundation, for the covers of the reports that we are presenting today.
As we have been diligently working on these assessments, we have also been advancing the implementation of our PFM Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028. And I am proud to say that we have already made significant progress in transforming and harmonizing our PFM system.
To name a few, we celebrate the passage of the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), the launch of the Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS), the revival of the Digital Information for Monitoring and Evaluation (Project DIME), and the institutionalization of key policy reforms, in partnership with DEPDev, such as the Revised National Evaluation Policy Framework (NEPF) and the Program Convergence Budgeting (PCB).
And we will not stop here. We will utilize the PEFA Assessment Reports to improve our PFM landscape further. In fact, just last month, we hosted a collaborative workshop for the mobilization and implementation of the PFM Reforms Roadmap using invaluable insights from the initial PEFA findings to shape our priority action steps in the months and years ahead.
Indeed, these reports do not mark the conclusion of our journey, but the beginning of a new era for a brighter, stronger PFM system that truly serves the Filipino people.
So today, let us build upon the foundations that will enable us to navigate the road ahead: continued collaboration, renewed commitment, and a collective effort to push forward with even greater purpose and determination.
With this, I invite everyone to watch this video on the comprehensive and objective analyses of the country’s PFM systems and processes as we solidify our role as a trailblazer in open governance and fiscal transparency.
This will be followed by an in-depth presentation of the PEFA Assessment Results by our Principal Economist, Dr. Joselito R. Basilio.
Let all of these serve as our guide towards building a Bagong Pilipinas—with a PFM system grounded on efficiency, transparency, and accountability, in fulfillment of our Agenda for Prosperity.
Thank you very much!
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