Drilon wants immediate enactment of P2-T 2013 budget

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Franklin Drilon asked his colleagues to immediately enact the proposed P2.006-trillion 2013 national budget aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit to just two percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“For 2013, the national government plans to further trim the fiscal deficit to just 2 percent of GDP,” Drilon said in his sponsorship of the 2013 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

A day after the Senate passed the measure restructuring the taxes on tobacco and alcohol, Drilon recommended to specify under unprogrammed funds the P23.4 billion for the Universal Health Care Program.

With the target revenue of about P40 billion from the new sin tax measure, Drilon said the budget for the Department of Health (DOH) initially pegged at P56.8 billion will increase to about P80 billion.

The Department of Education (DepEd) will remain as the agency with the highest budget allocation. Its budget will increase by 22.6 percent to P292.7 billion, from P238.8 billion this year.

A P54-billion increase in funding will help address the shortage in classrooms, teachers and textbooks. It will also support the department’s K+12 program.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is second with P152.9 billion, followed by the Departments of National Defense (P121.6 billion), Interior and Local Government (P121.1 billion), Agriculture (P74.1 billion), DOH (P56.8 billion), Social Welfare (P56.2 billion), Transportation and Communications (P37.1 billion), Finance (P33.2 billion), and Environment and Natural Resources (P23.7 billion).

To support the 2013 budget, the government will raise total revenues of P1.78 trillion. It also projects a 13.8 percent tax effort, up from an expected 13.3 percent in 2012.

Drilon said the government’s total outstanding debt in 2013 will amount to P5.8 trillion or less than half of GDP, compared to a 54.8 percent debt to GDP ratio in 2009.

“The President’s budget is anchored on a real GDP growth rate of 6.0 to 7.0 percent, inflation rate of 3.0 to 5.0 percent, and the 364-day T-Bill rate also at 3.0 to 5.0 percent,” Drilon explained.

“The exchange rate is projected at P42 to P45 against the dollar, while crude oil prices are projected in the neighborhood of $90 to $110 in 2012 as well as 2013.”

To dramatize that the 2013 budget will focus on infrastructure, housing, poverty and access to health programs, “a peso allotted for education would bring a glimmer of hope in Nenita’s eyes as she walks some three kilometers to school every day, somewhere in the hinterlands of Mindoro,” Drilon said.

“Funds earmarked for health would alleviate the pain borne by Aling Chayong, who would rather buy food for her children than life-saving medicine for her ailment.”

“Allocation for housing and livelihood would brighten the desolate world of Mang Pepe who sits by the window, weaving dreams of hope in a tottering shanty in a backwater Manila community.”  

P-Noy’s social fund

The budget, however, did not include the Priority Social and Economic Project Fund, a lump-sum fund newly created in the President’s budget.

“The specific programs, projects and activities contained therein have been transferred back to the relevant implementing agencies,” Drilon said.

He said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) itself requested from Congress upon the concerned agencies’ submission of the detailed breakdown of their specific allocations.

In his sponsorship speech yesterday, Drilon recommended several amendments to House Bill 6455 or the General Appropriations Act of 2013 to ensure that it will meet the nation’s most urgent needs and that public funds are managed prudently and judiciously. “

“We are again at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history when we assume our constitutional duty to shape the national budget and the national destiny. I stand before you today to present for the approval of this august chamber the proposed national budget for 2013 that will have a direct impact on the lives of an estimated 100 million Filipinos,” Drilon said.