MANILA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday submitted the 3.767 trillion pesos (74.21 billion U.S. dollars) budget for 2018 to congress leaders after delivering his second state of the nation address.
Duterte asked the congress for quicker passage of the budget, which aimed to support the bold plans of his administration to deliver the change that the president had promised since the campaign.
The 2018 budget is 21.6 percent of the projected GDP for next year, and is 12.4 percent higher than the current 2017 budget of 3.35 trillion pesos (66.21 billion U.S. dollars).
Under the proposal, the biggest allocation goes to education sector with the bulk going to the Department of Education, and the rest allocated to the Commission on Higher Education.
The Department of Public Works and Highways, which handles most of the infrastructure programs of government, gets the second biggest allocation.
The Department of Interior and Local Government which oversees the Philippine National Police and the anti-crime campaign of government gets the third biggest portion.
The budget bill was one of the eight measures that the president endorsed in the state of the nation address.