Zero-sum game: Who lost in the 2025 national budget?

The 2025 national budget was met with widespread criticism from both lawmakers and civil society members.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was set to sign the 2025 budget on Friday, December 20, but has since admitted that certain items need to be vetoed.

Before being signed into law, the national budget goes through several key iterations. The first is the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is the executive branch’s proposed budget, prepared by the Development Budget Coordinating Committee.

It is then reviewed by the House of Representatives in a series of panel hearings and plenary debates, which later becomes the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The Senate also conducts simultaneous hearings to review the bill.

After the Senate and House passed the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), the appropriations panels from both chambers convene in a bicameral conference committee to resolve any differences between their versions of the budget.

The agreed-upon version is then approved by the bicam and later put to a vote for ratification by both the Senate and the House.

It is also considered the “final” version of the proposed national budget, as the GAB may lapse into law if the president decides not to sign or veto it within 30 days of receipt.

Once it becomes a law, the national budget becomes known as the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Philstar.com takes a look at how Congress divided the country’s public funds.

PhilHealth

The country’s national health insurer, PhilHealth, faced the largest cut in the 2025 budget, receiving no subsidy for the year. Initially, the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP) allocated P74.43 billion to PhilHealth, but Congress raised concerns over the insurer’s P500 billion reserve funds accumulated over the years.

Lawmakers questioned how PhilHealth amassed so much funds when it often covered so little for contributors. Marcos does not appear eager to restore PhilHealth’s budget, affirming Congress’ stance that it must use its reserve funds first.

The Department of Education (DepEd) suffered a nearly P12 billion budget cut from its GAB-approved allocation of P748 billion. The GAB version of the bill had already reduced around P56 billion from the original proposed NEP.

A total of P10 billion was deducted from the agency’s computerization program, a move that Education Secretary Sonny Angara strongly criticized. However, the House of Representatives’ budget panel defended the decision, citing the low utilization rate of the budget during the tenure of the previous DepEd chief, Vice President Sara Duterte.

While DepEd’s bicam-approved budget for 2025 still exceeds the agency’s budget during the Marcos administration, many still criticized how agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were given a bigger cut.

It has been a tumultuous year for the vice president. Since her resignation as the DepEd Secretary, she has waged a verbal war against Marcos and lawmakers.

Duterte refused to defend her budget for 2025, saying she could operate her office without one.

Lawmakers decided to slash the OVP’s proposed P2.03 billion budget down to P733 million — more than half of her budget.

The budget panel reasoned that many of the OVP’s proposed projects were redundant of agencies such as the DOH and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The OVP also faces allegations of misusing confidential funds, with the House panel on good government and public accountability investigating how the offices used its 2022 confidential funds.

The country’s primary welfare agency suffered a massive budget cut in the bicam from the GAB approved in the House of Representatives. Initially set at P313.26 billion in the GAB, the bicam decided to remove P95.92 billion, bringing down the agency’s current budget to P217.34 billion. This is also a decrease from the DSWD’s NEP budget, which was P230.05 billion.

Under the DSWD, the bicam restored the controversial  Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), which targets to help minimum-wage earners affected by inflation. The AKAP became a repeated point of contention between the House and the Senate after the former inserted the project in the 2024 GAA without the knowledge of many senators.

The Senate initially deleted the AKAP from their version of the bill, but this was later restored in the bicam, albeit reduced from its amount in the GAB. Sen. Grace Poe said that this was reduced from P39 billion to P26 billion.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian has gone on record to defend the AKAP funds, insisting that this was not a form of pork barres. Politicians will not be allowed to be present during AKAP distributions, Gatchalian said.

The Department of Transportation (DOTR) initially had a proposed P180.89 billion in the NEP. The House budget panel decided to slash this down to a mere P103.92 billion. After the bicam however, this was further reduced to P89.82 billion.

Despite receiving nearly half of its proposed NEP budget, the 2025 bicam budget still fared better than the DOTR’s budget in the 2024 GAA. The DOTR’s Office of the Secretary only received P41.2 billion. Combined with its attached agencies such as the Philippine Coast Guard, the DOTR only got P73.30 billion as a whole in 2024.

The University of the Philippines (UP) saw a budget cut of P641.37 million, reducing its allocation from P23.40 billion in the GAB to P22.76 billion. This marks UP’s largest budget cut compared to its allocations in previous years.

For 2024, UP currently has P24.77 billion. If the 2025 bicam budget is approved, this would entail a P2.08 billion cut from UP’s current budget.  

The pension and gratuity fund covers the benefits of retired government personnel, including those in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The NEP had carved out P232.01 billion for the pension fund, but this was later reduced to P180.72 billion in the GAB. This was further pushed down to P144.72 billion in the bicam-approved budget, marking a P36 billion reduction.

Ups and downs 

Several agencies saw their budget go through ups and downs. Agencies like the DOH, the Department of Agriculture and the Commission on Higher Education were initially given a budget. However, the bicam decided to slash it down again.

For example, CHED has a NEP proposal of P31.52 billion, which the House raised to P60.22 billion, and then trimmed back down to P33.31 billion in the bicam.

Points of contention 

Following the reveal of the contentious items in the 2025 budget, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the executive branch find themselves at a crossroads.

Senators have decried the last-minute changes made in the 2025 bicam, which includes the AKAP funds, as well as the decision to give Philhealth zero subsidy.

Marcos, at first hesitant to say that he would veto controversial items, has admitted that it was up to the Executive branch to revise it.

“We have to put it back in the same shape that we had first requested. So, unfortunately, we are only left now—I am only left now with the veto power because the bicam is done,” Marcos said.

During the bicam’s ratification of the 2025 budget, Senate President Francis Escudero admitted that the budget was not perfect. He called it a “zero-sum game,” explaining that it was not possible to give to one agency without taking from another.

With a set budget to work with, Congress is tasked with responsibly assessing which agencies and programs deserve to get a bigger cut. The final budget hence becomes a representation of what the government seeks to prioritize.

While it may not be feasible to fulfill every agency’s request, many of the budget cuts in the 2025 allocation came from public welfare agencies and projects. If health, education, and social aid are not the government’s top priorities, then what truly is? — Dominique Nicole Flores, Jean Mangaluz

Read: Zero-sum game: Who wins in the proposed 2025 national budget?