|
By Sammy Martin, Reporter
Lawmakers, voting viva voce,
unanimously passed the proposed P1.415-trillion national budget for
2009 on second reading on Saturday morning.
House Speaker Propero Nograles
thanked the lawmakers for their patience with the first national budget
passed under his leadership.
“We have just passed a very
flexible, reform-oriented budget, and a recession-responsive policy
action that our people can depend on, an antidote to economic
stagnation,” Nograles said. He noted that the House remained
faithful to the constitutional mandate of giving education the
highest focus among the nation’s priorities.
According to the House Speaker,
the proposed outlay supports the government’s priority programs
and projects for 2009 and can meet any and all contingencies that
may arise as a result of the current global economic slowdown
spawned by the US financial crisis.
“Despite the US government’s
$700-billion bailout package, we cannot be complacent but should
anticipate any possible ill effects that the crisis may have on the
Philippine economy,” he pointed out.
The House will transmit the
proposed national budget to the Senate and Nograles said that it
aims to pass the budget on 3rd reading at the resumption of session
on November 10.
Majority of congressmen had
favored realignments to bolster the education and health budgets and
strengthen social services in the face of the current world
financial crisis.
The proposed budget retains the
“pork-barrel” allocation—officially known as Priority
Development Assistance Fund, or PDAF—for senators and congressmen
at P6.24 billion. It allocated P302.65 billion, or about 21 percent
of the total budget, for debt servicing.
Under Committee Report 1323 on
House Bill 5116, the highest priority is given to the Department of
Education with P167.9 billion, or an increase of P18.7 billion from
its 2008 level of P149.2 billion. At second spot is the Department
of Public Works and Highways with P120 billion, an increase of P17.6
billion from the 2008 outlay of P102.4 billion.
The Department of Interior and
Local Government comes next with P61.9 billion, followed by the
Department of National Defense with P61.5 billion, the Department of
Agriculture with P39.7 billion, the Department of Health with P27.8
billion, the Department of Transportation and Communications with
P23.6 billion, the Department of Agrarian Reform with P16.1 billion,
the Department of Finance with P13.8 billion and the Department of
Justice with P12.8 billion.
The Department of Social Welfare
will receive P10.5 billion, which is higher by 114.3 percent than
its 2008 budget of P4.9 billion. The budget of the Agriculture
department will increase by P14.3 billion, or 56.3 percent more than
the current P25.4 billion, to P39.7 billion.
Under sectoral allocation, social
services will get the highest share at P433.992 billion or 30.67
percent of the total budget. Economic services will get 25.54
percent or P361.394 billion.
Debt service will get P302.65
billion or 21.39 percent of the total budget and general public
services, P239.591 billion or 16.93 percent of the budget.
Local governments will get a
share of P249.989 billion or about 18 percent of the total budget
representing their share from the Internal Revenue Allotment, or
IRA.
|
