ALTHOUGH the Philippines is still the leader in budget transparency in the Southeast Asian region, the government must pursue budget transparency after the Philippines slipped eight notches in a budget transparency survey for 2021, according to Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman.
“It is vital that we realize that open government does not only benefit the system, rather its advantage cascades to different sectors of society. It creates more stable conditions to incentivize investments from the private sector, sets the stage for ensuring public trust, and strengthens the country’s democratic institution’s principles,” Pangandaman said during the “2021 Open Budget Survey (OBS) Public Forum” last December 1. The forum was organized by the La Salle Institute of Governance, together with the International Budget Partnership and Stratbase ADR Institute.
In its 2021 study, the OBS reported that the Philippines was able to maintain its lead in Southeast Asia despite a decline in its score. The Philippines scored 68 out of 100 in budget transparency, placing the country at the 19th rank out of 120 countries. In the previous round of the OBS in 2019, the Philippines got a score of 76 and ranked 10th.
DBM commitment
PANGANDAMAN stressed the commitment of the DBM to open and participatory government and its intent to take OBS recommendations to improve budget processes.
“We are also committed to continuing working towards an open and participatory government as we chair the Philippine Open Government Partnership Stating committee,” she said. “Furthermore, we will take the recommendations of the OBS to heart and study the feasibility of introducing this in our processes.”
Suad Hasan of the International Budget Partnership (IBP) expressed hope that the Philippines would increase its efforts to improve budget transparency after falling out of the top 10 performers in the 2021 OBS.
“We, in the open budget survey team, give the Philippines examples of budget documentation, especially of your citizens’ budget, very often [in presentations to other countries], and there are some really clear and simple measures to be taken that I’m sure would put the Philippines back in the top 10 performers. I am optimistic here,” Hasan said.
She further highlighted the joint congressional review committee formed during the pandemic as one of the Philippines’s initiatives for budget accountability reforms.
“This is an example of how we shared best practices from amongst countries and we also encouraged all countries to usher in a race to the top by disclosing more and more information, especially around debt and financial risk and make these accountability reforms permanent,” Hasan explained.
Public deserves to know
DE La Salle University Institute of Governance Senior Fellow and Professor Francisco A. Magno presented the survey results and discussed that the OBS provides data and information to the public regarding the budget processes.
Magno, who serves as the OBS independent expert for the Philippines, said the public deserves to know all the ongoings on the country’s budget.
“[The OBS] indicates where we are currently when it comes to the availability of information, the timeliness of its publication, and the content, especially the budget. It’s a public document; it’s the people’s money—how it is used, and how it can be an important resource for enabling us to achieve our policy goals.”
Magno urged the Marcos administration to pursue digitalization of the budget process.
“The gold standard nowadays for effective budget transparency is digitalization, providing information on public websites, the timeliness of the information, and the comprehensiveness of the content, including the eight key budget documents,” Magno said.
While the Philippines’s budget transparency score remains at a sufficient level, experts and government officials still see the need to improve budget mechanisms to develop public access and open government further.
Digitization, e-government
DBM Assistant Secretary Rolando U. Toledo emphasized their careful analysis and response to OBS indicators in increasing the transparency of budget documents.
“Currently the budget documents produced by the DBM are now published and it is assured that we have a higher score compared to the next cycle,” Toledo said. “Improvements of the score of the key budget documents under the DBM based on some IBP’s recommendations are also included in the documents.”
Stratbase ADR Institute President Victor Andres C. Manhit also expressed support for DBM’s initiatives. He said that with digitization and e-government, there would be more responsive public expenditure programs for the Filipino people. He also highlighted that the Philippine governance culture is lacking accountability.
“Good policy choices on the continuing pandemic, rising inflation, food security and energy, job creation, poverty reduction, even public-private partnerships, will be the barometer of accountability moving forward for this administration,” Manhit explained.