Agri, economic recovery programs top priorities in Marcos 2023 budget
Agricultural and food security, climate change adaptation and economic recovery projects are among the priority programs that will be included in the proposed 2023 national budget, which needs to be submitted to the next Congress within 30 days from the opening of the regular session in July.
Incoming Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said in a statement that President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has instructed her to ensure that the 2023 National Expenditure Program contained his priority programs and projects.
“I aspire to draft and implement a budget that will promote a broad-based and inclusive economic recovery and growth,” Pangandaman said.
She added that the entire economic team was set to meet “soon” and that she will work with them to fulfill the President-elect’s campaign promises.
Currently serving as assistant governor at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Pangandaman accepted the invitation to serve as the next administration’s secretary of Budget and Management, vowing to help bring the Philippines “back on track to achieving a high-middle income status.”
“The pandemic was a challenge like no other in the way it stretched our resources and set us back on our goals as a nation,” the economist said in an earlier statement.
“My team and I vow to work with the rest of the economic team and continue the policies and reforms that we have long fought for,” she said.
Communication, advocacy
At the BSP, Pangandaman handles strategic communication and advocacy and is coordinator of the central bank’s executive offices. She is chief of staff to BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno.
More recently, she was undersecretary at the Department of Budget and Management during Diokno’s second stint as Budget secretary in 2016-2019.
Much earlier, Pangandaman was chief of staff to Sen. Edgardo Angara, when the legislator was senate president.
Pangandaman earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Far Eastern University and master’s degree in Development Economics from the University of the Philippines. She is currently pursuing her Executive Master of Public Administration from the London School of Economics.
According to her profile that came with her statement, Pangandaman—a Maranao with roots in Mindanao—offers diversity and fresh perspective to an otherwise male-dominated team of economic technocrats.
