Philippine gov't seeking over $30 bln budget for 2009

Source: IPBee2000 – Philippine Real Estate News

 

 

The Philippine government will forward to the Congress on Wednesday the proposed 1.4 trillion-peso (30.7 billion U.S. dollars) national budget for 2009, media reports said on Tuesday.

 

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told reporters on Monday that she has signed the budget proposal Sunday night, the Philippine News Agency reported.

The 2009 proposed budget is about 15 percent higher than the 1.227-trillion-peso (26.9 billion dollars) budget for 2008.

The President said the proposed budget would address not only the world food and fuel crises but also the funding requirements of the government's priority programs, including environment, education and economy.

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said the proposed2009 budget would set the deficit ceiling at 40 billion pesos (0.88 billion dollars), or half a percentage point of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to only one percent of GDP this year.

Roads, bridges and other public works, along with the farm sector, schools, social welfare and the government's health insurance program, would be the major recipients of the 2009 general appropriations, according to the report.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said the government has adopted a new policy for the new budget called "performance budgeting."

He said that the idea of a performance-based budgeting policy was "those who perform well, such as departments that were able to implement projects based on the 2008 funding, will naturally get more resources and those who have the absorptive capacity to spend, will get more resources as well."

Agriculture, public works and highways, and education will be among the "major recipients" of additional budget next year in keeping with the commitments that the President set out in this year's state of the nation address.

The social welfare department and Phil Health, the state medical insurance program, will also be getting a large share of the budget.

President Arroyo said it would be "desirable" if the Congress could approve the proposed 2009 national budget by December, but added that her administration has "lived for many years without the budget being signed in December."

For the past two years, the Congress failed to enact the proposed outlay, forcing the government to operate under a reenacted budget for the first quarter, according to the report.