DBM steps on the gas pedal, releases 95% of 2019 budget to agencies

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has stepped on the gas pedal in distributing the 2019 national budget with 95.3 percent of allocations already released to agencies as of the end of September.

The rush came in the wake of a delay in the budget approval mainly because of a Congress squabbling over kickbacks in pork barrel funds.

In a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 15, the DBM said at least P3.4 trillion had already been released out of P3.6 trillion in obligated funds for 2019.

The release was slightly slower in the first nine months of 2018 with the DBM disbursing some 96.3 percent or P3.5 trillion of the year’s P3.7 trillion budget.

The 2019 budget was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte only in mid-April and vetoed at least P95.3 billion of funding for projects that are not priorities./TSB