Education, infrastructure get bulk of proposed 2019 budget

Education and infrastructure remain the top spending priority of the Duterte administration under the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) revealed on Friday.

The 2019 general appropriations would be the first cash-based budget of the government, with one year validity and a three-month extension after the fiscal year for agencies to settle payments for the goods and services delivered.

The third budget crafted under President Rodrigo Duterte gives the education sector—comprising the Department of Education, State Universities and Colleges, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority—the largest share of P659.3 billion, up 12.3 percent or P72.2 billion from its cash-based equivalent of P587.1 billion under the 2018 budget.

The Department of Public Works and Highways gets the second largest allocation of P555.7 billion, up 68.3 percent or P225.5 billion.

“We are sticking to our plan of focusing on Build Build Build and social services,” Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

“These are the priorities we identified as early as the beginning of our term, and we will see to it that investments in these sectors are sustained,” Diokno said.

The Department of Interior and Local Government is getting the third largest allocation of P225.6 billion, up 30.9 percent or P53.3 billion.

The bigger allocations are supposed to strengthen local governance and support the public safety initiatives of the government, the DBM said.

Security, peace and order

The Department of National Defense came in fourth with a budget of P183.4 billion, an increase of P46.9 billion or 34.4 percent

The amount will bolster security and promote peace and order in the country, according to the DBM.
   
Social Welfare—composed of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the budget for Unconditional Cash Transfers under the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP)—is the fifth largest with an allocation of P173.3 billion, up 5.4 percent or P8.9 billion.

Funding social welfare supports poverty-reduction efforts and social protection programs of the government, the DBM said
        
Health, which combines the budgets of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC), has an allocation of P141.4 billion.

“The said budget is 8.9 percent lower than last year’s allocation due to a significant cut in the Health Facilities Enhancement Program, to give way to fast-moving and implementation-ready projects given the cash-based budgeting system the DBM is implementing,” the Budget department said.
       
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has the seventh-highest allocation of P76.1 billion, up 89.3 percent or P35.9 billion. It will address the need for efficient and comfortable mass transport systems all over the country to ease the lives of Filipino commuters.
        
The Department of Agriculture gets a budget of P49.8 billion, up 22.4 percent or P9.1 billion.

The allocation is intended to promote agricultural development and improve the lives of people in the rural sector, the DBM said.

Priority initiatives

The Judiciary has been given the ninth largest allocation of P37.3 billion, up 5.4 percent or P1.9 billion, to ensure the swift and fair administration of justice, according to the Budget department.

The allocation for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is P32.3 billion, up 32.4 percent or P7.9 billion.

It supports livelihood, peace and order, and rural development projects in the region, the DBM said.

The proposed 2019 budget will be submitted to Congress on July 23, the same day when President Rodrigo R. Duterte will deliver his third State of the Nation Address.

“The President’s Budget for 2019 will continue to provide the largest allocations to the priority development initiatives of the government,”  Diokno said.

“We have not only increased the budgetary allocations of agencies, but also implemented reforms to speed up the delivery of essential public goods and services to our citizens,” he said. —VDS, GMA News