Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman; COA Chairman Gamaliel A. Cordoba; ADB Director General Leah C. Gutierrez and Deputy Director General Pavit Ramachandran; United Nations Children’s Fund Philippine Representative Behzad Noubary; AFD Country Director Bénédicte Gazon; our development partners; fellow workers in government; ladies and gentlemen: Good afternoon.

Let me begin by thanking everyone who has brought these comprehensive reports to life.

To our hardworking colleagues at the DBM, COA, the ADB, and all our development partners, I salute you for a job very well done.

Napakahalaga po ng mga reports na ito.

They harvest lessons learned, highlight good practices, and harness these as a way forward.

These documents help us track if we are meeting our development goals. They likewise tell us if our systems are truly working to deliver efficient public services and economic prosperity for all.

And looking at the results of the evaluations, it seems that we are making very good, steady progress.

We are the first in ASEAN to conduct a full-scale Public Financial Management Disaster Response and Recovery Assessment.

This puts us ahead of the curve in disaster risk management, which we have leveraged to protect lives, save properties, and minimize disruptions proactively.

We are also ahead of our neighbors in transparency, asset management, and strategic budgeting.

We are doing very well in revenue performance, as well as in debt and cash management.

We are collecting every peso better, and we are spending them well on programs that help our people cope with the challenges of today while capacitating them for a better future.

We are managing debt with discipline. We are scrutinizing our financial performance more rigorously than ever—and holding ourselves accountable without exception.

But while these reports tell us that we have come far, they also remind us of the hard work that remains to be done.

And so, as the budget season approaches, these reports should guide us on how to craft one that is resilient to shocks, responsive to disasters, and receptive to national goals.

And above all, resistant to the tinkering and the tampering that subvert national goals and derail our fiscal plan.

I see these reports as part of the compelling literature that will remind those with the power to ordain public spending of their cardinal duty to spend wisely and never recklessly.

I see these as reminders of the following canons in budgeting:

That we only spend what we can sustainably raise.

That revenues are the upstream of appropriations and not the other way around.

That current expenditures should not bequeath a huge pasa load of debt to the generations that will come after us.

Because if we flip the order, the future pays the price.

For the national budget must live within the means of the people who fund it. This is how we will protect the future of our people and the next generations of Filipinos.

This is especially true at this age when disasters, particularly typhoons, are becoming more frequent, more fickle, and more ferocious, and have become a de facto macroeconomic assumption.

Typhoons and earthquakes not only rearrange the lay of the land, they can also refigure spending plans and priorities.

When disaster strikes, we have to cobble together funds for a relief and reconstruction package for people and places who need them soon.

The entire fiscal landscape gets affected as well.

The truth is that when a storm blows away houses, it also knocks down revenue goals. For example, a mere three-day closure of Mega Manila ports results in billions of revenue losses.

When towns and farms get flooded, our revenue base gets submerged, and our tax collection goes under too.

So as we move ahead—against headwinds of the natural, economic, and political kind—the DOF, together with the economic team, will stay true to our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.

But the goals therein will only be met if the bar of good governance and fiscal management is constantly raised and defended from deviations.

And it is papers and studies like the one we are launching today that make good become better, and better become best.

More so if they are utilized not just as tabletop reading but to improve conditions on the ground, where they matter most.

For it is this ethos of innovation that Bagong Pilipinas embraces — of making sure that every peso works for the Filipino people, and every promise will be delivered.

So again, I thank everyone involved in these reports. The work ahead demands that we do more. So let us all act with urgency. Let us get it done—and let us do it right.

Maraming, maraming salamat po. Mabuhay po kayo, at mabuhay ang Bagong Pilipinas!