Citizens' MDG Budget Monitoring Toolkit
The Citizens' MDG Budget Monitoring Toolkit
developed by Social Watch Philippines through
the support of the United Nations Millennium
Campaign was presented for validation to local
government officials of Pangasinan last December
16, 2010 in Baguio City.
This
toolkit shall be a package of printed manual and
CD copy that will empower citizens and local
government units through: a CITIZENS’ MDG BUDGET
ANALYSIS TOOL that will aid in the evaluation of
the impact of the national and local budget in
terms of achieving critical MDGs (MDG 1, 2, 5,
6, 7) at the community level through Citizens
MDG Budget Monitoring around the MDG F themes;
CITIZENS’ MDG BUDGET TRACKING TOOLS to monitor
the release and implementation of the budget.
This will help citizens monitor whether the
budget for the MDG-related programs were
released to the right people/agencies/programs
and whether the services and programs that were
funded actually reached the vulnerable groups –
women, children, the sick, out-of-school youth,
farmers, etc.; and a CITIZENS MDG BUDGET
ACCOUNTABILITY TOOLS to empower the local
communities in terms of constructive engagement
with the local government through feedback and
reactions on the accessibility and quality of
social services provided by the local government
/ service providers.
The development of the tool is led by Social
Watch Philippines together with a team of
development workers who played key roles in
organizations implementation of MDG localization
and campaigns on people’s participation in
budgeting at the local level. This includes
E-Net Philippines, Philippine Rural
Reconstruction Movement and the Global Call To
Action Against Poverty Network. A team of
professors from the Siliman University in
Dumaguete, Negros Oriental was also tapped for
the presentation, validation, and pilot testing
of the toolkit in three municipalities in Negros
Oriental.
BUDGET ACCOUNTABILITY FLOWCHART
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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.
Congressmen
hailed as
democracy
champions
Social Watch Philippines – Alternative Budget
Initiative members hailed House Committee on
People’s Participation Chair Benjamin Asilo,
House Deputy Speaker Erin Tanada III and the
members of the Committee for pushing genuine
democracy by passing a bill that will
institutionalize people’s participation in the
national and local government budget processes.
The Committee finalized House Bill 219: An Act
Institutionalizing the Participation of Bona
Fide People’s Organizations, Non-Government
Organizations, or Private/Civic Sector Groups in
Public Hearings in Congress and Local Government
Units in Budget Deliberations after National
Government Agencies (NGAs) and Nongovernment
Organizations (NGOs) expressed their approval of
the Bill during a Committee Hearing held
yesterday at the House of Representatives.
“Members of SWP/ABI look up to Cong. Lorenzo
Tanada who authored the Bill together with then
Congressman Teofisto Guingona III and Cong.
Benjamin Asilo who immediately worked on this
Bill upon assuming chairmanship of the Committee
on People’s Participation as champions of
democracy. There will only be democracy if
people are able to directly influence decisions
and priorities on how public funds work for
their own development and this Bill
institutionalizes it,” said former national
treasure Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convenor
of SWP, which organized the ABI.
SWP-ABI and Cong. Tanada III started
collaborating on the bill on people’s
participation in the budget process in 2008
together with then Congressman Teofisto Guingona
III.
The bill allows bona fide NGOs and peoples’
organizations (POs) to submit the alternative
budget proposals and propose alternative sources
of financing. It also requires NGAs to conduct
public consultations with concerned stakeholders
on their agency’s proposed budget before
submitting it to the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM). At the same time, Municipal
and City Mayors are required to hold
consultations on the proposed budget of the
Local Government Units (LGUs) with their
constituents before submitting it to the local
Sanggunian.
“Filipinos should be proud that the Alternative
Budget Initiative led by Social Watch
Philippines is acknowledged globally as one of
the best practices of people’s participation. It
is only in the Philippines that NGOs submit
alternative budget proposals that could be
adopted by legislators in the Senate and House
of Representatives’ for the national budget,”
Cong. Tanada told the NGA representatives
present during the meeting on the bill including
the Departments of Interior and Local
Government, Education, Health, National Defense,
Social Welfare and Development, Budget and
Management and the National Economic Development
Authority.
As proposed by ABI, a total of Php 5.3 billion
was added to the 2007 national budget, while Php
6.3 billion was added to the 2008 budget for
education, health, agriculture and the
environment. In 2009 and 2010, the national
budgets were increased by Php 6.7 billion and
Php 5.4 billion respectively for the above four
categories.
For 2011, the hundred-strong network of budget
advocates proposed a total of P58 billion
increases for education, agriculture,
environment and health. The group also
identified P94 billion in lump sum
appropriations which can be utilized as source
of funding for the increases in the allocation
for social development
“We hope that this bill is immediately ratified
in Congress. SWP and ABI will continue to
support the House Committee on People’s
Participation for the bills that it will pass
towards democratic governance, transparency and
accountability,” Briones said.
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People’s groups plant Christmas Tree of Hope
at the Bicam
Members of nongovernment organizations and urban
poor groups today fixed up a Christmas Tree in
front of the Philippine Coconut Authority in
Quezon City in time for the Bicameral Conference
Committee’s meeting to finalize the 2011
national budget.
“This is our Christmas Tree of Hope and Reform.
We are decorating this with Christmas Balls
expressing our call for the Bicameral Conference
Committee members to give the poor people a
merry Christmas by realigning lump sum items in
the budget to increase the budget for pro-poor
programs,” said Marivic Raquiza, convenor of
Social Watch Philippines (SWP) which organized
the Alternative Budget Initiative, the network
globally acknowledged for initiating
Congress-citizens’ partnerships for alternative
budget proposals.
Former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis
Briones, SWP lead convenor, explained that the
citizens’ groups are actually calling for the
Bicam and President Benigno Aquino III to use
the lump sums to increase the budget for poverty
alleviation programs instead of sacrificing
certain pro-poor programs.
 “They
could get the funds to increase the budgets for
health, agriculture, environment and education
from the lump sum items such as 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; as well as the Public-Private
Partnership Support Fund,” said Briones.
The group also used effigies of Bicam members as
they decorate their Christmas Tree with the
Christmas balls with written wishes for the
marginalized sectors.
“We call on the Bicameral Conference Committee
to increase the budget for Expanded Program on
Immunization for infants, children and the
elderly, vaccine self-sufficiency and the
subsidy for health insurance premium of indigent
families including P500,000,000 for informal
sector enrolled in the National Health Insurance
Program,” said Mercy Fabros of Woman Health
Philippines.
“There is still hope because the Bicam can still
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,” said Hazel
Tanchuling of the Rice Watch and Action Network.
“They should increase the budget for Alternative
Learning System, which is supposed to cater to
the out-of-school youth should be increased to
P2,500 per learner for 500,000 learners. While
about 20 percent of school-aged Filipino
children are out of the school system, a measly
budget of less than one percent of the Education
budget is allocated to reach the out-of-school,”
said Rene Raya of Action for Economic Reforms.
“They slashed the housing budget from P11
billion to P5.6 billion. We hope that the Bicam
would see it as their moral obligation to help
us, homeless families and informal settlers,
because we also contribute so much to our
economy” said Erning Ofracio of the Aktibong
Kilusan Tungo sa Iisang Bayan (AKTIB).
 “We commend Senators Allan Cayetano and Pia
Cayetano for raising the fact that the 2011
budget contains skewed priorities and continues
the previous administration’s severe under
spending for social development programs on
health, education, agriculture and environment.
Add to this, even Congressmen themselves
complained that reductions were made in the
programs of frontline agencies and transferred
to lump sum items without sufficient details,”
said Reginald Guillen, national coordinator of
the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP).
“We hope that the Bicam members would consider
our Christmas Tree of Hope and Reform and grant
the people’s wish of a happier Christmas, a
better New Year, and better lives by considering
what the citizens’ think about public funds,”
Guillen said.#
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