President Aquino on Tuesday signed into law the P2.606-trillion national budget, setting next year’s funding priorities for state-sponsored projects and programs, as administration and opposition aspirants start gearing up to run for various posts at stake in the 2016 national elections.
The enacted 2015 budget law is 15.1 percent higher than the current year’s P2.265-trillion approved allocation. In a brief speech after affixing his signature on the 2015 budget bill, Mr. Aquino warned that sanctions would be imposed on government officials who will fail to implement the priority projects listed under the administration’s “performance-budgeting scheme.”
He said the loopholes that allowed unscrupulous officials to misuse public funds have been plugged.
Now, he said, it would be difficult to steal from state coffers, vowing that “we won’t stop going after those who misuse public funds.”
The President, at the same time, thanked Senate and House leaders for their efforts to make sure the annual money measure is passed on time, along with the P22-billion 2014 supplemental budget bill intended for Supertyphoon Yolanda reconstruction and other projects suspended when the Supreme Court outlawed the administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Mr. Aquino also asserted this is the fifth consecutive year the
national budget law was passed before the year ends, noting that its timely enactment cemented the administration’s spending program for “rapid, long-term and inclusive development.”
As approved, Mr. Aquino reported that the 2015 budget allocated adequate funds amounting to P20.9 billion for 1,590 cities and towns under his administration’s Bottom-up Budgeting Program to provide for the needs of their communities.
For instance, Mr. Aquino said
the Department of Public Works and Highways is eyeing to finish concreting and improving national roads covering 4,219 kilometers.
He added the funding program was also designed to enable the Department of Social Welfare and Development to provide assistance to some 4.3 million families under the so-called Pantawid Pamilya ng Pilipino Program and for the Department of Tourism to reach its target to increase international tourist arrivals by 20 percent.
Budget Secretary Florencion B. Abad said the enacted General Appropriations Act of 2015 is 15.1 percent higher than the current year’s budget and focuses more on strengthening fiscal reforms and post-disaster rehabilitation and climate change.
“We’re pouring even more investments into the administration’s antipoverty and economic growth programs, as well as strengthening governance reforms we’ve helmed so far,” said Abad in a statement on Tuesday. “We remain optimistic about our growth prospects in 2015, especially with this budget supporting the country’s development targets.
with Estrella Torres