Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Thursday said the proposed increase in the budget for local or foreign missions and state visits in 2024 is “justified.”

In a Palace briefing, Pangandaman said there is a need to raise the budget for next year’s domestic or overseas travels to ramp up the Marcos administration’s efforts in promoting the Philippines as an “investment hub”.

“Kami po, hindi lamang ang Presidente (We, not just the President but) even the economic managers, if you will notice, we have been going out of the country to present the Philippines as an investment hub,” she said.

“So, I think ‘yung expenses ng travel (the travel expenses), as long as it will be beneficial and mas may advantage po para sa bansa natin (and advantageous to our country), I think okay lang po ‘yun (it is okay). It’s justified,” Pangandaman added.

Under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) transmitted to Congress on Wednesday, the Office of the President is requesting an allocation of PHP1,408,894,000 for “local/foreign missions and state visits.”

The proposed budget was higher than the PHP893.97 million under the 2023 NEP approved by Congress and included in the 2023 General Appropriations Act.

Pangandaman said Marcos and his economic team are embarking on foreign trips to entice more investors to put up or expand their business in the Philippines.

Marcos has so far visited 11 countries since he assumed the presidency in June 2022.

These include Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Cambodia, Belgium, China, Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

Marcos’ economic managers are also conducting investor roadshows in other countries to attract more foreign investments.

The economic managers seek to hold briefings in the Middle East, Asia and Europe in the first quarter of 2023 and in the Philippines in the second half of the same year.

Malacañang Press Briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez said Marcos’ foreign trips are so far yielding positive outcomes, noting that the visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent visit to the Philippines was a result of Marcos’ visit to Brussels in December 2022.

“These trips that the President and the teams have been making, we are seeing the effects of them now,” she said.

Marcos’ recent trip to Malaysia has so far generated USD285 million worth of investment pledges.

On July 12, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said about USD88.4 million worth of investment commitments yielded during Marcos’ previous foreign trips are seen to materialize in 2023. (PNA)