MORE than 10 departments are set to face possible budget cuts next year, including the Departments of Health (DOH), Trade and Industry (DTI), Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
This, despite the 2020 proposed national budget increasing by 12 percent at P4.1 trillion, compared to P3.66 trillion for 2019.
Interestingly, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which submitted the 2020 National Expenditure Program (NEP) or the proposed national budget to Congress on Tuesday, is leading those departments with slashed budgets.
Data from the 2020 NEP showed DBM proposing a P2.33-billion budget for itself next year, down by 35.96 percent or P1.31 billion from its approved 2019 budget of P3.64 billion.
In contrast, the Department of Transportation’s proposed national budget for 2020 is more than double than what was allotted in the 2019 national budget. From P69.4 billion this year, it will rise by 111.8 percent or P77.6 billion to reach P147 billion.
The data on the budget allocations per department already included the automatic appropriations.
Coming in second after DBM in terms of budget reduction is the Office of the Ombudsman, the budget of which is being cut by 32.99 percent. The proposed 2020 budget for the office is P3.15 billion, significantly lower than its budget this year of P4.7 billion.
Also suffering double-digit cuts are the DICT and other executive offices, with a decrease of 27.85 percent and 25.89 percent, respectively.
The proposed 2020 budget for DICT is P5.15 billion, far from its approved budget this year at P7.14 billion. Other executive offices also got P50.89 billion, a P17.78-billion drop from their P68.67-billion budget this year.
DOLE is also poised to suffer a double-digit decrease in its budget as the DBM only approved P14.91 billion. This is 11.79 percent lower than P16.9-billion approved budget allocation in 2019.
Meanwhile, the DBM also approved a lower budget for the DOH next year at P92.2 billion, a 9.6-percent decrease (P9.8 billion) from its P102-billion budget allocation this year.
The Department of Finance also received a cut of P1.54 billion or 7.62 percent, as the DBM only approved a proposed budget allocation of 18.72 billion compared to P20.26 billion this year.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the DTI are all poised to face more than 5-percent budget cuts for next year.
The DTI may have to make the most out of the DBM-approved 2020 budget at P18.1 billion, which is lower by 5.22 percent than its 2019 budget of P19.1 billion.
The proposed budget for Comelec and CSC for 2020 are P9.82 billion and P1.79 billion, respectively. The 2019 budget allocation for Comelec is P10.38 billion while the CSC had P1.9 billion.
Other offices which may also have reduced budgets for 2020 are the Department of Science and Technology (-0.39 percent), Joint-Legislative-Executive Council (-2.95 percent), the Judiciary (-2 percent) and the Commission on Human Rights (-0.86 percent).
Congress is set to start its budget deliberations on Thursday and vowed to pass the budget on time.
Last year, the budget cuts in the proposed 2019 national budget earned the ire of lawmakers. The DBM has since said the budget cuts last year were due to a shift in the budgeting system, from obligations-based to cash-based budgeting system. However, the budget cuts in education, health and infrastructure were restored by Congress.