Even as the 2018 national budget is starting to be implemented this January, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has initiated the preparation of the 2019 national budget with a National Budget Call, asking national government agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations to submit their budget proposals for next year. Related to this, the DBM conducted a forum on January 17, 2018 to discuss and clarify budget issues pertaining to the whole budget process and to the concerns of individual agencies themselves.
We underscore here the fact that the national budget formulation, legislation, implementation and monitoring process is a continuing never-ending cycle. The DBM is a central driver to the entire set of activities in initiating and directing government spending. It is not an easy job, as we might understand, noting the enormous funds, which must be spent—yes, spent, not hoarded—to achieve the purposes for which they have been appropriated. And these purposes can vary by sector: (economic, social, defense, general services, debt burden); by expense class; by recipient unit; and by region. These can also vary by the government’s priorities. There are so many ways to slice the budget for
a meaningful analysis.
This piece is an attempt to get the reader to be a little more aware and interested in how our government spends its tax collections and other nontax revenues. Because it matters to be engaged as citizens to whom the government must be accountable.
That said, let’s pick out some 2018 budgetary explanations to get more acquainted. I am “mining and digging out” from the DBM publication “2018 People’s Proposed Budget,” which highlights budgetary items, combining numbers, texts and colorful visuals to make it a more interesting reading.
It is assuring that the 2018 budget of P3.767 trillion has been adopted “anchored on the pillars of the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022” (contemporaneous to President Duterte’s period of leadership), providing the foundations for a “matatag, maginhawa at panatag na buhay” for Filipinos. It’s part of an integrated six-year presidential term spending program and, therefore, provides focus, as well as coherence in desired outcomes.
We may all feel comforted and gratified that the long-term envisioned outcomes of which the 2018 budget is put in-step are all encompassing, a broad set of “desirables” that are translated to “doables” in a spending “actionables.” I will quote from the DBM’s publication (page 17, of “2018 People’s Proposed Budget”):
Envisioned goals, outcomes, guiding expenditure priorities
1. Inequality-Reducing Transformation ‘Pagbabago’
Enable ordinary Filipinos to feel real change by expanding economic opportunities and accelerating human capital development and reducing vulnerabilities of individuals and families.
- Enhancing the Social Fabric ‘Malasakit’
Restore people’s trust in public institutions and nurture trust in fellow Filipinos.
- Increasing Growth Potential ‘Patuloy na Pag-unlad’
Accelerate growth by graduating to a knowledge economy.
- Maintaining the Foundations for Sustainable Development
Accelerate infrastructure development and foster faster sustainable growth through strategic infrastructure and a peaceful and clean environment.”
These statements are the broad strokes, so to speak, of the hoped-for outcomes of this 2018 and succeeding annual budgets of the Duterte administration.
We take these as a declaration of commitments. The words have been crafted with great discernment, we must assume, to express the Filipinos’ collective aspirations for themselves through the government.
Let us not belittle our dreams.