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News
September 10, 2009
Social and economic services not
prioritized in 2010 budget; Civil
society and legislators put forward
alternative budget proposals
Social Watch Philippines (SWP) warned
that millions may plunge into poverty
next year as economic and social
services are not priorities in the
proposed 2010 national budget.
Former National Treasurer and SWP lead
convenor Leonor Magtolis Briones noted
that the budget for Social Services
increased by only P27.7 billion.
Allocations for Economic Services, which
includes agriculture, environment,
trade, power and energy and water
resources decreased by P25 billion. The
total budget for Departments was also
reduced by P51 billion. Meanwhile, the
greatest increase was in Debt
Service-Interest Payments which is P88
billion more than last year.
“Figures clearly show that the that the
eight percent increase in the budget for
2010 is not geared towards greater
spending for programs that will have the
greatest impact on economic and social
development,” Briones added.
She explained that the increase in the
budget is due to higher amounts for
Automatic Appropriations and Special
Purpose Funds (SPF) which increased by
P123 billion and P166 billion,
respectively. SWP has been consistently
calling for the realignment of SPF which
are unreasonably big budget items with
no special provisions and are highly
discretionary.
She also warned that out of P914
billion new general appropriations, the
Programmed Appropriations, or the budget
available for release in 2010 is only
P845. The remaining P69 billion is
Unprogrammed Appropriations which can
only be used if there are additional
funding.
“The proposed 2010 expenditure program
is a ‘maintenance’ budget and not
designed to lay ‘the groundwork for a
full-scale revving up of the economy in
the coming years’ as proclaimed in the
President’s Budget Message,” Briones
said
With this warning, 60 nongovernment
organizations led by SWP, yesterday
(September 10) presented their
alternative budget proposals for the
2010 national budget to legislators in a
meeting in Quezon City. Civil society
groups and legislators, through the
Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI)
campaign has been formulating and
lobbying for increased allocation for
health, agriculture, environment and
education.
Among those who attended the meeting
for the alternative budget proposals are
Congressman Roilo Golez, Congressman
Teofisto Guingona III. Also present were
senior legislative staff of Senators
Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda and Allan
Peter Cayetano and Representatives Edcel
Lagman, Ronaldo Zamora, Alfonso Umali
Jr. and Lorenzo Tanada III. A director
of the Congressional Planning and Budget
Division (CPBD) and a senior staff of
the Senate Economic Planning Office (SEPO)
also participated in the meeting.
“We are very happy that legislators are
supporting our alternative budget
proposals,” said Rene Raya of Action for
Economic Reforms (AER). “This provides a
bit of hope for 12.2 million hungry
Filipinos, especially when the magnitude
of poor population among basic sectors
has been steadily increasing.” he added.
A total of P5.3 billion allocations for
social development and P6.3 billion for
environment, agriculture, education and
health were added in the national budget
in 2007 and 2008 respectively as
proposed through the ABI. For the 2009,
ABI was able to push for P7.7. billion
increases in the budget for social and
economic services.
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