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AMID the
national crises brought about by world problems in oil
and food prices, the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) will have the biggest funding
increase—117 percent, or from this year’s P4.8 billion
to P10.5 billion next year—from the proposed
P1.415-trillion 2009 budget. This will give the DSWD
more “welfare armor” in the form of conditional cash
transfers (CCTs) and subsidies to families at risk from
food and fuel price spirals.
This was
contained in the National Expenditure Program for
2009—which has a P188-billion or 15.4-percent increase
over the 2008 budget—submitted by Malacañang on
Wednesday to the House of Representatives.
To give
the government the flexibility to address the economic
challenges, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said it
has jettisoned the timetable to balance the budget this
year.
“The
need to provide the vulnerable social protection takes
precedence over the satisfaction of turning in a
balanced-budget scorecard,” Andaya said.
“We will
balance the budget in 2010 so our deficit target this
year is P75 billion. Next year our target is 0.5 percent
of GDP [gross domestic product], so [our 2009 budget
deficit is] roughly P40 billion,” he said, mostly in
Filipino.
Although
the DSWD got the biggest funding hike, the top recipient
of funds in 2009 is still the Department of Education (DepEd),
with a budget of P167.9 billion.
Andaya
said DepEd’s P19.8 billion-budget increase next year
will allow it to hire 10,000 teachers and 2,000
nonteaching personnel; build 8,100 classrooms and 750
science labs; buy 35.8 million textbooks; and 1.79
million chairs and provide P7.2 billion in maintenance
and other operating expenses to schools, among others.
At the
same time, there will be an increase in teachers’ salary
from the P12,000 entry level to P18,000, and for doctors
from P15,000 to P27,000.
“Our
professionals no longer need to go abroad,” Andaya said.
The
Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture and
Fisheries Modernization Act will get a 56.1-percent
increase or from P25.4 billion this year to P39.7
billion next year.
“We are
pumping up spending for agriculture because we cannot
forever rely on foreign granaries to feed our people,”
Andaya said.
The
Department of Public Works and Highways will have an
increase of 17.2 percent, or from P102.4 billion to P120
billion “as roads being built generate jobs, and when
finished, spur economic activities,” Andaya said.
He said
President Arroyo is submitting the proposed joint
resolution, as agreed upon in the Judiciary, Executive
and Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council
meeting, where top government heads agreed to have the
Salary Standardization 3.
“The
total fund for the first round of salary increases for
all government employees is P20 billion. Our government
employees have long been waiting for this,” Andaya said.
The
Department of Health’s budget will be hiked to P27.8
billion, or a 37-percent hike.
Had the
conflict in Mindanao broken out during the crafting of
the budget, Andaya said it will also get a significant
increase in the budget which will focus more on war
materiél, particularly its air assets. But he said, “We
will welcome realignments or amendments made by Congress
for Mindanao.”
Defense
spending will be hiked from P61 billion to P65.2
billion.
While
debt service will increase to P302 billion in 2009,
Andaya said the government is still looking for ways to
reduce it.
“Its
share in the budget pie...continues to follow the
downward trajectory from 31.6 percent in 2005, to 23.2
percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008 to 21.4 percent in
2007,” Andaya said.
The
budget chief said that by sectoral allocation, the
government is increasing the share of economic services
from P299 billion this year to P361.4 billion next year;
social services is increased from P377.5 billion to P434
billion; and defense spending, from P61 billion to P65.2
billion, “largely on account of military pension
pressures and rise in petroleum prices.”
The
budget chief said the 2009 budget is premised on
revenues of P1.393 trillion, “representing a
16.3-percent revenue effort, and 11.4-percent higher
than this year’s projected take of P1.25 trillion.”
The
Bureau of Internal Revenue is expected to generate P
968.2 billion next year and the Bureau of Customs, P300
billion.
He said
the 2009 budget is anchored on the following
macroeconomic assumptions: GDP growth of 6.1 to 6.8
percent; inflation rate of 6 percent to 8 percent; Dubai
oil at $115 to $125 per barrel; exports growth rate of 7
percent; and foreign exchange forecast band of P42 to
P45 to the dollar.
Meanwhile, Liberal Party Rep. Junie Cua of Quirino, the
newly-elected chairman of the House appropriations
committee, said committee hearings will start on
September 3 and he hopes to finish them on September 17.
“Thereafter, we will conduct the subcommittee hearings
and we will go into plenary [session], hoping that
before we adjourn on October 10 we should have passed
this on second reading,” Cua said.
He also
said that like in 2007, the House welcomes the
participation of nongovernment organizations and
people’s organizations to participate in budget
deliberation.
Cua
vowed that his committee would thoroughly scrutinize the
budget proposal. |
