Friday, March 14, 2008 Editorial: The 2008 national budget
THERE’S an aura of hope surrounding the signing of the General Appropriations Act of 2008.
Not only does it indicate that, after all, the executive and legislative branches of government can work together for our country’s good.
It also shows that both branches are capable of coming up with an acceptable formula of distributing the national resources to various operating agencies of government.
The Department of Education gets the biggest budgetary slice, with P140.24 billion.
Taking lesser priority are the departments of agriculture and health with P24.71 and P19.77 billion, respectively.
Direction
It is on how the nation’s financial resources are distributed among key government offices that observers are able to read the direction of the administration’s development programs and policies, as well as the possible motives behind the policies.
The 2008 annual budget indicated a strong concern of the Arroyo administration for education.
And it is sound, in the sense that the global budgeting trend in recent years has been giving premium to education.
It is a budgetary fallacy to deny the primordial importance of education in the development and growth of any country.
But nations with peace and order problems would give special priority to national defense.
A nation where internal problems tend to erode public trust and confidence in government would give higher priority in budgetary support to the interior and local government.
Buffer
Note, however, that of the estimated more than a trillion pesos the Arroyo administration intends to spend this year, it holds special concern for three areas: education, the economy, and the environment.
President Arroyo hopes this would serve as buffer to a “deteriorating global economy, and the accompanying rise in prices which affects food, and transportation the most,” causing a harder life for the poor.
And here emerges the big question: What percentage of the budget would really be spent as intended, and what percentage would go into the private pockets of some of our public officials?
It is a relevant question that should lend high priority to the President’s proposal for Congress to urgently consider and pass a comprehensive Anti-Corruption Reform Act.
