President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. speaks during the Change of Command Ceremony of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) at the PSG Grandstand in Malacañang Park, July 4, 2022. He praises the elite force for its courage, patriotism, and for serving the country. Office of the President 

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday met with Senate President Chiz Escudero, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, and Philippine economic managers in Malacanang to ensure that the government’s priority projects will be funded in next year’s national budget.

The National Economic and Development Authority said this aims to make sure that the Philippine government remains on track in achieving the economic goals and targets under the Philippine Development Plan, especially those that are geared to help achieve enhanced food security, improve economic climate, and access to quality infrastructure.

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“The President stressed and we all agreed, and the leadership of Congress agreed, that we need to ensure that the projects of this administration in relation to the high priority projects pegged at achieving the goals and targets in the Philippine Development Plan, are achieved,” said NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

“Overall, the agreement is all these projects, particularly those that have been committed by our development partners, our ODA [official development assistance] sources —  these projects that are so critical in achieving the socio-economic transformation that we will be aiming for, will be funded in 2025, and the President got that assurance.”

Balisacan said it’s business as usual for the Marcos administration, despite the worsening rift between the President and Vice President Sara Duterte. The NEDA Chief said that the Marcos government is focused on making sure that the country’s economic momentum is sustained.

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“I don’t think that these political noises will have any impact on the economy, but what is important is our economic policies, the policy directions are sound and sustained,” Balisacan said.

“In fact, that has been the case for the Philippines since the late 1990s, the economy continued to progress and our directions have been broadly sustained. And for us in this administration, we are so focused on ensuring that the goals, and targets and strategies that we have outlined in the Philippine Development Plan will be achieved and that is important for the broad public to signal that the economic momentum is sustained," he added. 

Balisacan said the administration is determined to achieve an “A” credit rating in the next 24 months, after American Credit Rating Agency recently raised its credit rating outlook of the Philippines to positive. This is despite external headwinds that may pose uncertainties to the country.

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“With respect to other developments in the world, Trump Presidency coming in, with threats of high tariffs, and the possible responses of other countries to such tariffs, if they materialize, of course, they pose other uncertainties for us,” he said.

“But what we are trying to do in our economic program as spelled out in our Philippine Development Plan is to diversify our economy and strengthen its fundamentals so that we can be more resilient to these shocks,” he continued. 

The official noted the need for the government to further diversify the economy to make it more resilient and stable despite challenges. 

“I think over the years I am quite confident that our economy now is more stable than any other time in the past. It’s more diversified than in the past. But we need to continue improving and developing other pillars of growth for example I keep saying that the services sector is a big part of the economy but we should strengthen our agriculture further, we should strengthen our manufacturing so that you all have these pillars of growth providing that sustainability and resiliency that we want to achieve,” he said.