Congress urged to adopt alternative 2010 budget

MANILA, Philippines - A consortium of non-government organizations (NGOs), led by former National Treasurer Leonor Briones, has urged Congress to adopt an alternative budget in 2010, saying there is a need to increase allocations for socioeconomic programs such as health, education and environment.

The Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) said lawmakers should adopt alternative budgets for health, education, environment and agriculture so that rehabilitation and reconstruction in the wake of destructive typhoons can be accelerated.

Briones said the 2010 expenditure program is a ‘maintenance’ budget and not designed to lay the groundwork for recovery and a full-scale revving up of the economy in the coming years.

“The allocations for critical socioeconomic services in the proposed 2010 budget and the additional revenues will not be enough for rehabilitation and reconstruction of sectors damaged by recent calamities. It will also not be enough to shelter the people from the impacts of globalization and the global economic crisis,” said Briones.

She explained that the allocations for economic services, which include agriculture, environment, trade, power and energy and water resources, decreased by P25 billion. The total budget for departments was also reduced by P51 billion. “Figures clearly show 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 said.

Instead, the ABI proposed a total of P25.2 billion additional allocations for health, agriculture, environment and education. This includes additional allocation of P9.6 billion for education, P2.1 billion for health, P790 million for agriculture and P11.3 billion for environment. The group also proposed a total of  P50 billion alternative sources of financing to be able to increase the budget for social development.

“We urge the Senate to adopt our alternative budget proposals for better allocation for health, agriculture, environment and education. The Philippines is already in danger of missing its targets on ending the worst forms of human deprivation as embodied in the Millennium Development Goals. More than one third of the population is living on less than one dollar a day. Five million children cannot go to school.

We are among the countries with the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in Asia. Meanwhile, the extreme weather conditions aggravate the situation,” Briones said.

She said the alternative budget proposals by civil society groups aim to increase financing for these vulnerable sectors who should be the targets of rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts of the government.