Angara was referring to the country’s second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) rate of only 3.4 percent, down year on year from 8.9 percent
He thus urged Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to rethink the expenditure plan of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for the remainder of the fiscal year during their presentation at the Senate.
As such, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) proposed a spending plan amounting to P72 billion for every remaining month of the year to which Angara said: “That is too little, too late. The government’s fiscal policy has been quite costly for our people in terms of human-capital development.”
Angara, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, advised the DBCC to revise its strategy, “otherwise, results and impact of our efforts will be marginal.”
The lawmaker stressed the importance of a more decentralized strategy in reaction to the DBCC presentation showing an increased government spending where 90 percent will come from the National Government and government-owned and -controlled corporations, and the balance from local government units (LGUs).
“This P72 billion is money readily available, and is supposed to be quick disbursing so that it could immediately target and have an impact on poor, underdeveloped communities,” said Angara. “That will be hard to do through centralized spending.”
Angara further called on Budget Secretary Abad to look into expediting bidding processes as was done in 2008, and devolve government spending by involving LGUs and the private sector.
“Why don’t we assign some of these projects to the LGUs, which in turn can tap the private contractors in their area to do the work,” he suggested. “We can even partner with the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the Makati Business Club, for programs such as classroom-building.”
The Asian Development Bank said the government’s decreased infrastructure spending and increased reliance on private-sector investments have been late to take off, thus the effect on the GDP growth rate.
