Budget on hold

After failing to pass the national budget for 2007, members of both chambers of Congress see the enactment of the measure by February. But some quarters have expressed concern that the election campaign will distract lawmakers after the holidays and the government will have to live with the 2005 budget, re-enacted for the second year.

Already economic officials are warning that infrastructure development and basic services including education could suffer because of the failure to pass a new outlay for 2007. The proposed budget increases every year. Allocation of expenditures based on a re-enacted budget may not be too difficult from one year to the next. But between 2005 and 2007, the difference in the annual appropriation is about P350 billion. That’s a lot of money needed to finance development projects and improve the delivery of basic services.

All government agencies can use additional funding. The government needs to hire thousands of additional teachers, nurses and doctors as well as raise the salaries of health professionals and educators to prevent them from leaving for better paying jobs overseas. The country has such an acute shortage of school buildings and classrooms that even container vans will soon be converted into classrooms at the former city dump in Manila, with the British-supported project expected to be replicated in other parts of the country.

The government needs to hire more cops, environment police, graft investigators. It needs to improve the country’s infrastructure, whose inadequacy is driving away investors to neighboring countries. The country needs more roads, modern railways, bridges, even bigger prisons to accommodate the booming inmate population. The government needs money to modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as promised once again yesterday by President Arroyo. The nation needs money to modernize the voting system.

All these items need additional funding. Government agencies devote a lot of time and effort preparing detailed budget proposals every year, only to see the previous year’s appropriation re-enacted and their efforts wasted. Now the national budget is set to be re-enacted again. Congress, perpetually distracted by partisan politics, never fails to disappoint the public.