Duterte, Cabinet approve first P4-T national budget for 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte and his Cabinet approved on Monday the national budget for 2020, which will be the first to breach P4 trillion.

The proposed P4.1-trillion budget will be submitted to Congress for scrutiny.

The Palace has yet to announce when it will forward copies of the 2020 National Expenditure Program to the Senate and House of Representatives but under the Constitution, the President has 30 days from his State of the Nation Address or until August 22 to do so.

Both houses of Congress will then hold hearings and pass a reconciled version of the budget bill to be submitted to the Palace for the President’s signature.

12% higher

The P4.1-trillion proposed budget is 12% higher than the P3.66 trillion approved for 2019. This year’s national budget came into effect only in May as its passage was delayed due to wrangling by lawmakers over post-ratification budget realignments and insertions.

Next year’s spending program is equivalent to 19.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Among the priority programs under the 2020 budget are infrastructure development, and  the implementation of new and critical government programs and policies such as the Universal Health Care Act, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Rice Tariffication Act, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programs Act, and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Act.

Other priority programs to be funded under next year’s appropriations include the K-12 program, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the Unconditional Cash Transfer Program, the Risk Resiliency Program, and the Coastal Resource Management Program.

“This budget proposal is designed to respond to the needs of the majority of our countrymen longing to be uprooted from the decades of: want of basic necessities, inadequate supply of basic services, lack of infrastructures required to spur economic growth, absence of accountability on government coffers, vexing bureaucratic rigmarole, deprived education and unchanged poverty, and geared to achieve a more peaceful and progressive Philippines where the living standards of Filipinos are raised,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

“We assure everyone that our people's money, with education receiving the biggest slice of the budget, followed by public works, transportation, and health, will be spent wisely to reach a state of vibrant economy that will be felt by the citizenry.” —Amita Legaspi/LDF, GMA News