House starts deliberations on P2.3-T 2014 budget

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. yesterday vowed a speedy but thorough deliberation of the proposed P2.268-trillion national budget for 2014 so it could be approved and signed into law before the end of the year.

Belmonte said the House of Representatives would do its best to approve the proposed spending program before the end of the year as it had done in the last three years of the 15th Congress.

“For the past years, they (Malacañang) have endeavored to submit the budget one day after the opening (of Congress), and we appreciate that very much that we will also reciprocate it by giving preference to the approval of the budget so that by the time the new fiscal year starts, the budget is in place,” Belmonte said.

“One thing we’re trying to avoid at all costs is a re-enacted budget, ” Belmonte said, referring to the practice of using the previous year’s approved budget in the new fiscal year.

“Cuts are possible but as you can see, the budget department took pains to craft a budget that helps everybody while trying to make it lean as it could be,” Belmonte said when asked if the House could reduce certain allocations.

President Aquino yesterday urged Congress yesterday to approve the budget proposal, saying the proposed allocation would help shape the legacy he wanted to leave behind.

In his budget message, Aquino said the proposal would lay down the foundations for progress, adding the government would push for the equalization of opportunities for all, regardless of their life circumstances.

He added the goal of his administration was to have a national expenditure program that would build on the new prosperity created in the past three years.

“We want to leave behind this legacy: a transformed government, a capacitated people, an inclusive economy, and a better nation. I cannot overemphasize my deep commitment to laying the foundation that will ensure the realization of this legacy,” Aquino said.

He said it was consistent with the government’s macroeconomic and fiscal program for the medium term.

More important, Aquino said the proposed 2014 budget was designed as a tool that should be maximized as they continued to fortify the foundations for inclusive development.

The budget intensified investments in capacitating people through basic services, such as education and manpower development, adequate healthcare, and social protection services, and would enable them to sustain growth trajectory in a way that would promote growth that directly and substantially benefit the lowest of sectors, he added.

The President said the proposed national budget has new “faces” to become more responsive to the people’s needs, including the “Performance-Informed Budget Structure,” where each peso was now presented alongside the results that they wanted to achieve.

“Through this new budget structure, we are redefining accountability as a commitment to deliver the direct, immediate, and substantial dividends of good governance to our people,” Aquino said.

And after introducing the zero-based budgeting approach to scale down funding for activities that were not aligned with the set priorities or were otherwise ineffective along with the program budgeting approach to further deepen the level of budgetary prioritization within each priority area of the administration by defining the strategic programs, Aquino explained the Budget Priorities Framework was also established to direct all departments and agencies to design their respective budget proposals along with program priorities in line with the social contract with the people and the midterm updating of the Philippine Development Plan.