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THE
House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and
final reading the P1.227-trillion national government
budget for 2008, with the education sector getting a
hefty augmentation of P6.436 billion in the general
appropriations bill.
Voting
174-8, House members approved the bill without
amendments to the second reading approved last month.
House
leaders said that with the early approval of the budget,
hopes are high there will be no reenacted budget next
year. The government has been operating on a reenacted
budget for three years because of Congress’ failure to
pass it.
The
eight congressmen, mostly from militant party-list
groups, voted against the bill, claiming that the budget
was not a social payback but a political payback of
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to her allies. No one
abstained.
Next to
the education department, the health sector is receiving
highly significant budgetary increases.
The
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) celebrated the
inclusion of a special provision putting on hold
interest payments for questionable loans in the 2008
national government budget.
“This is
a momentous event for debt campaigners in the
Philippines. We congratulate the House Committee on
Appropriations, chaired by Rep. Edcel Lagman, for
putting on the record our recommendation to stop the
payments for illegitimate debts that continuously drain
our national coffer,” said FDC president Ana Maria
Nemenzo.
The
Lower House appropriated P277.95 billion for interest
payments next year. This is P17.8 billion less than the
Malacańang proposal of P295.75 billion.
FDC said
that of the P17.8-billion reduction, about P6 billion
was an offshoot of a favorable US dollar exchange rate
and about P11 billion from questionable loans.
The
special provision stipulated in the House budget bill
stressed that “no amount shall be used for the payment
of interest on debts which are challenged as fraudulent,
wasteful or useless or both, like but not limited” to
the following loans:
§
Austria
Medical Waste Project —Bank Austria
§
Small
Coconut Farms Development Project (SCFDP)—International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
§
Second
Social Expenditure Management Program (SEMP2)—IBRD
§
Secondary Education Development and Improvement Project
(SEDIP)—Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
and Asian Development Bank (ADB)
§
Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) Modernization
Project—Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) of Germany
§
Telepono
sa Barangay Project —Export Development Corp. (EDC) of
Canada and Credit Comm’l de France
§
Power
Sector Restructuring Program—ADB and JBIC
§
Power
Sector Development Program—ADB and JBIC
§
Angat
Water Supply Optimization Project—JBIC
§
Procurement of Search and Rescue Vessel from Tenix
Defense Pty Ltd.—Export Finance and Insurance Corp. (EFIC)
of Australia
§
Pampanga
Delta Development Project—JBIC
§
Remaining unsecuritized loans incurred during the term
of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
The debt
watchdog also lauded the committee for breaking
tradition when it allowed bona fide people’s
organizations (POs) and nongovernment organizations
(NGOs) to take part in public hearings into the GAA.
The
Civil Society Consortium for Alternative Budget, led by
Social Watch-Philippines and the Freedom from Debt
Coalition, presented an alternative budget and source of
financing during the series of hearings.
Lagman
earlier said that “the traditional practice of solely
limiting budget briefings and hearings to heads and
representatives of government departments and agencies
is an incomplete process.”
The FDC
recognized that the war against illegitimate debts is a
long process and that the first battle in the Lower
House has been won.
“We
fervently hope that the Senate will do what the Lower
House has done. We hope that they listen to and
understand our arguments and proposals. More important,
we hope that they strike out automatically appropriated
interest payments for these illegitimate debts and
reallocate them to basic social services,” said Nemenzo.
Lagman
said the budget of the Department of Education was
increased by P5.273 billion from an original allocation
of P145.975 billion, while P1.162 billion was added to
the outlay of
State Universities
and Colleges (SUCs).
“We are
dismantling the dominance of elitist education in the
country by starting to significantly fund preschool
education in the grassroots,” said Lagman.
With an
increase of P1 billion, the total appropriation for
preschool education in 2008 will be P3 billion, which
will enable the program to graduate from the pilot stage
in due time.
Lagman
said the increase in the funds for school buildings and
teaching positions will greatly ease the shortages in
classrooms and teachers.
As for
the augmentation in the budget of the SUCs, Lagman said
P524 million was allocated for additional scholarships
and financial assistance; P587 million for capital
outlays; and P51 million for additional MOOE.
As for
the health sector, Lagman said the amount of P6.812
billion was added to the outlays for free medical
assistance to indigent patients, reproductive health and
family planning, local government units contributions
for PhilHealth coverage of poor families,
antituberculosis campaign, subsidy to specialty
hospitals and financial assistance to local hospitals,
procurement of medical equipment, and construction and
repair of hospital units, among others.
Lagman
said the P4.722-billion increase in the budget of the
Department of Health proper, net of the additional
allocations to specialty hospitals for subsidy and
treatment of indigent patients of P1.090 billion; and
the P1 billion for LGU contribution for PhilHealth
coverage, has raised the appropriation of DOH for 2008
to P20.981 billion or an increase of 74 percent over
this year’s outlay of P12.058 billion.
He said
the augmentation for reproductive health and family
planning “will help contain the inordinately high annual
population growth rate of 2.36 percent, as reported by
the National Statistics Office, which impacts adversely
on the principal indicators of human development like
health care, quality education, food security,
employment, mass housing and the environment.”
Lagman
said the amount allocated for reproductive health and
family planning will be used for “the conduct of
nationwide educational campaign and seminars as well as
the procurement of modern natural and artificial
reproductive-health products in order for the government
to create an enabling environment for couples and women
to make an informed choice regarding the family-planning
method that is best suited to their individual needs,
personal convictions and religious beliefs.”
He said
the targeted approval of the GAA on third and final
reading on Tuesday will give the Senate ample time to
pass the spending measure before the Christmas break. |
