THE House of Representatives on Tuesday passed on third and final reading the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.
It has been dubbed “A Budget for Real Change” that will finance President Rodrigo Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic development agenda.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles said the budget “will fuel our quest for reforms that will uplift the lives of our people.”
He described next year’s budget as a “budget that is truly for the people, of the people and by the people”•a budget that underlines what inclusiveness means.”
Duterte had urged the lawmakers to scrutinize the budget and then approve it.
“More than being a collection of figures and provisions, the proposed 2017 national budget is the embodiment of our people’s clamor for real change and a compassionate government,” Duterte said.
He said his commitment to implement real change was at the core of the proposed budget.
“This is my administration’s first budget,” Duterte said.
“It is a budget that gives flesh and bone to the promise by which I won as President, which is to fight for social justice. It was designed to realize change in the here and now. This budget is for the people and by the people.”
Next year’s proposed P3.35-trillion budget is 11.6 percent higher than the his year’s budget of P3.002 trillion. It is 20.4 percent of GDP compared to this year’s 20.1 percent of GDP, according to the Department of Budget and Management.
The biggest recipients of next year’s budget are the Department of Education (P567.5 billion), Department of Public Works and Highways (P458.6 billion), Department of the Interior and Local Government (P150 billion), Department of National Defense (P134.5 billion), Department of Social Welfare and Development (P129.9 billion), Department of Health (P94 billion), State Universities and Colleges (P58.8 billion), Department of Transportation (P55.4 billion), Department of Agriculture (P45.2 billion) and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (P41.7 billion).
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno says the 2017 budget is “a budget for real change” because it focuses resources on programs and projects that will achieve the Duterte administration’s 10-point socioeconomic development agenda.