The Duterte administration was prodded over the weekend to accelerate government spending in the last quarter, as this will enable the economy to grow at a higher rate by year-end.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said there is a need to step up fund disbursements “to make up for delays” in completing key infrastructure and social projects within the year. He said implementing agencies must use their annual allocations to help the administration attain its growth target for 2019.
Angara pressed implementing agencies concerned to act quickly after the Department of Budget and Management confirmed that nearly 96 percent of the P3.662-trillion 2019 national budget has been released last month.
The senator recalled that the Duterte administration’s economic managers earlier set a growth target of 6 percent to 7 percent for 2019, but even a lower target is now in danger of being missed “because of the late budget approval and delays in project implementation.”
Angara said government agencies concerned must exert all effort to “provide the service that our people deserve” by catching up on spending even though there are just two months left in the year.
He added that “not just infrastructure but also on the delivery of social services have faced delays,” noting that for the poor families, “every bit of help they can get from the government means a lot to them and goes a long way to making ends meet.”
Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, noted that according to the Department of Finance, infrastructure spending has already reached 92 percent of the full-year target as of end-September while total disbursements has hit 98 percent of the target.
“It is encouraging to see that we are finally addressing the problem of underspending, which has plagued us since the previous administration. But we should always strive to hit our targets, especially when it comes to spending on infrastructure,” he said.
The senator stressed that “spending on infrastructure creates jobs and has a cascading effect across various industries, all of which spurs economic growth.”
Angara recalled that growth slowed to 5.5 percent in the second quarter due to the delay in the enactment of the national budget but the economic managers are optimistic it will rebound to 6 percent in the third quarter.
“The agencies have to catch up on their spending so that we can hit our growth target. The reenactment of the budget was regrettable but as the data has shown, the targets set are still attainable so we must sustain the momentum,” said the senator.