President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said the Philippines will move toward the reality of an upper middle-income society as he submitted to Congress his first cash-based P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.
The next day, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the President’s budget message for 2019, “Building a Bright Future for the Philippines and its People,” contained his budget priorities.
“It includes intensifying infrastructure development, expanding programs on human development, building a more secure and peaceful nation, and other select major social programs,” Roque told reporters.
He praised the Budget department for its speedy delivery of the budget proposal after the President’s third State of the Nation Address Monday night.
“In 2019, we will see sustained and more determined efforts to improve our agency spending performance, as we effect the shift to the annual cash-based appropriations system,” Duterte said in his message.
“This 2019 budget, designed to be a modern and open budget for accountability and service delivery, will take us from dream to action, from possibility to reality, and from building to being.”
Under the proposed 2019 budget, the Education, Public Works, and Interior Departments will receive more funds.
The Education department will receive the largest share of the funds at P659.3 billion, which is P72.2 billion higher than its cash-based equivalent in the 2018 budget of P587.1 billion.
Public Works will receive the second highest fund allocation for next year of P555.7 billion, which is 68.29 percent higher than its P225.5 billion budget the previous year.
Meanwhile, in terms of sectoral allocation, social services remained the biggest recipient at P1.377 trillion, equivalent to 36.7 percent of the proposed budget.
It was followed by the general public services, which included allocations for general administration, public order and safety, other general public services, and subsidies to local government units at P709.1 billion. The defense sector will get P188.2 billion.
The P3.757-trillion national budget for the succeeding year represents a 13.0 percent increase from this year’s cash-based appropriations of P3.324 trillion.
According to Duterte, more programs and projects in the 2019 budget will be completed, delivered, inspected and accepted by the end of the year following the increase.
Meanwhile, the total disbursement program for 2019 of P3.833 trillion represents an increase of 13.7 percent from 2018’s P3.370-trillion disbursement level. The increase is equivalent to 19.7 percent, an improvement over this year’s 19.2 percent.
The increased disbursements will be supported by a 12.7-percent improvement in revenues amounting to P3.208 trillion from the 2018 level of P2.846 trillion.
Duterte also said his administration could now put more money in the people’s pockets as the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law would increase and expand the investments toward the country’s inclusive growth.
