In drawing up budget, gov’t turns to the poor

Malacañang is tapping inputs from 300 to 400 of the poorest towns across the country to prepare a national budget for the people, and build on reforms realized in drawing up this year’s spending plan.

The Department of Budget and Management has already started the process of preparing next year’s budget, partly to ensure an early passage of what will be the General Appropriations Act of 2013.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said planning for 2013 expenses would focus on the poorest towns identified by the Cabinet’s human development and poverty reduction cluster.

“Local-level engagement will be facilitated via relevant government agencies, local community leaders, local government units and partner civic organizations,” Abad said.

He added that the DBM would invite an initial set of agencies to spearhead the new approach, including the Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Environment, Social Welfare and Development, Education, and Health.

“The agencies will combine their respective services in poor communities by taking on the prioritized list of projects and programs and incorporating these into their budget proposals for 2013,” Abad said.

The budget chief said the early initiation of the “bottom-up planning process” will ensure that the needs of the poor towns will be adequately funded in the 2013 budget.

In the past, municipalities were required to submit public investment programs (PIPs) for the consideration of the regional development councils and for inclusion in line-agency budgets, the budget official said.

“The problem with the previous system was that proposals for PIPs were often conveyed to the agencies in July, during which the President’s budget is already being finalized for submission to Congress,” Abad said.

“Now that we’ve begun the bottom-up approach at a much earlier time, we can give the poorest communities sufficient leeway to communicate their needs and have their requirements effectively accounted for in the proposed budget.”

Abad said the bottom-up approach would complement the expanded engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) and people’s groups in the budget process.

In preparing the 2013 budget, 12 executive departments and six national agencies will consults with CSOs to boost citizen participation in the process.