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News
December 28, 2010
Budget activists hit signing of 2011
budget law
Says being on time ‘not enough’ to
address lingering problems of the poor
BUDGET activists expressed dismay over
the signing the P1.645 national budget law by
Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino on Monday,
insisting that Malacanang’s budget proposal was
“problematic” in many ways.
The so-called “Reform Budget” sought by
Pres. Aquino for 2011 was approved by both
houses of Congress without any major change as
predicted by Malacanang.
The P1.645 budget for next year is 6.8
per cent higher than the P1.54-trillion national
budget for 2010. Even with such increase,
however, citizens’ groups remain skeptical that
such increase will suffice to finance government
operations and fund anti-poverty programs that
will actually trickle down to the poorest of the
poor.
Prof. Leonor Magtolis-Briones, lead
convenor of Social Watch Philippines which
organized the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI)
said while the signing of the budget law by
Pres. Aquino on the same year it was submitted
to Malacanang by Congress was commendable, the
major issues and concerns raised by citizens’
groups such as the questionable lump sum
appropriations were not properly addressed.
“They put more emphasis on the time in
signing into law the budget measure but not its
content and substance,” Briones, a former
national treasurer stressed.
Equally important in the signing of the
budget law is the content and substance of the
budget measure which should be responsive to the
needs of the poor based on their experiences
rather than the wants of a few government
technocrats, she said.
According to Briones from the start, the
budget process lacked the transparency and
citizens’ participation, which Pres. Aquino
himself promised the people.
Citizens’ groups under ABI, a network of over
100 nongovernment organizations and people’s
organizations, want Congress to use the lump
sums to increase the budget for poverty
alleviation programs instead of sacrificing
certain pro-poor programs.
The lump sum items include the P21
billion Conditional Cash Transfer Program budget
under the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), the P30.5 billion
Unprogrammed Funds – Support for Infrastructure
Projects and Social Programs, the P1 billion
fund - subsidy for contingencies, and
Public-Private Partnership Support Fund.
She said Social Watch and the network of
NGOs and POs under ABI will continue to engage
the executive and legislative government in the
budget process and demand for a broader
citizens’ participation.
She appealed to various stakeholders to
be vigilant on how the government will spend
taxpayers’ money next year, especially the lump
sum appropriations which is at the disposal of
Pres. Aquino.
The education sector has the biggest
increase in the 2011 budget law in the amount of
P750 million. Even with such increase, however,
members of the ABI-Education Sector believe the
gaps in the proposed budget will not be
addressed.
“The said realignment of the lump sum
for basic education to create new teaching
positions is insufficient to provide quality
education. More so, the education budget itself
still does not reflect investment in programs to
reach the unreached or less-privileged and
improved governance and transparency,” says Rene
Raya of the Action for Economic Reforms (AER).
THE ABI-Education Sector is demanding
for budget increase for Alternative Learning
System, which is supposed to cater to the
out-of-school youth. They are proposing a P2,500
budget per learner for 500,000 learners.
Jonathan Ronquillo of the La Liga Policy
Institute said the 2011 budget remain
insensitive to climate change.
The signing into law of the budget
measure, which allocates a measly P13.1 billion
for the environment and natural resources sector
despite the threats of climate change-triggered
natural disasters such as super typhoons,
flashfloods and even agricultural drought,
defies Pres. Aquino’s own promise of giving
climate change utmost priority.
ABI-Environment Sector members has been
proposing an increase in the budget for the
environment and natural sector for 2011
amounting to P4.7 billion.
“It is unfortunate that the Bicameral
Conference Committee was mistakenly misled by
their knowledge of the family planning budget.
The P880 million request is over and
above the National Expenditure Program and
GAB-proposed P931.349 million allocation for
family health including family planning,”
WomanHealth Philippines’ Mercy Fabros said for
her part.
The ABI-Health Sector criticized the
misguided P251.35 million slash from the said
budget item, which accounts to P754.35 million
overall decrease as against the 2010 General
Appropriations Act.
This will ultimately derail the unmet
need for family planning and will not help the
attainment of health-related Millennium
Development Goals especially on improving
maternal health. This will cover the expenses of
all the family planning programs of the
Department of Health, not solely for the
acquisition of contraceptives, the ABI-Health
Sector argued.
Moreover, the group argued that is
unacceptable to realign such funds to State
Universities and Colleges (SUCs). Additional
allocation for SUCs should be lodged onto the
highly discretionary P90 million-lump sum funds
in the budget bill. There should never be a
clash between equally important services of the
government.
For its part, Hazel Tanchuling of the
Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) which
represents the ABI-Agriculture Sector wants
Congress to allocate P9 billion for the National
Food Authority (NFA) to buy rice from our local
farmers; and allocate P550 million for provision
of climate-resistant livelihood for fishers in
the light of massive poverty among coastal
communities in the Philippines.
Doing nothing about such problems, the
group believes, will only worsen hunger and
poverty, especially in the countrywide.
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public funds, January 20, 2011
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the MDGs,
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Society group challenges P-Noy, ‘Will
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business as usual?, July 27, 2010
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