PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte and members of his Cabinet approved on Monday, August 5, the proposed 2020 administration's budget of P4.1 trillion.
This is 9.0 percent higher than the 2019 budget of P3.757 trillion.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Department of Budget and Management targets to submit the National Expenditure Program to Congress before its deadline on August 21, 2019.
"This budget proposal is designed to respond to the needs of the majority of our countrymen longing to be uprooted from the decades of: want of basic necessities, inadequate supply of basic services, lack of infrastructures required to spur economic growth, absence of accountability on government coffers, vexing bureaucratic rigmarole, deprived education and unchanged poverty, and geared to achieve a more peaceful and progressive Philippines where the living standards of Filipinos are raised," Panelo said.
"We assure everyone that our people's money, with education receiving the biggest slice of the budget, followed by public works, transportation, and health, will be spent wisely to reach a state of vibrant economy that will be felt by the citizenry," he added.
In a previous statement, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said the proposed budget is equivalent to 19.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
"This responds to the needs and captures the aspirations of the Filipino people. We commit to fulfilling our Constitutional duty to submit this proposed budget within 30 days of the opening of Congress," the DBCC said after its meeting on July 18.
"The proposed 2020 National Budget will continue to invest in public infrastructure and social services, while funding the priority programs of the Duterte administration such as the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Universal Healthcare Law, the institutionalization of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), among other measures to promote economic and human capital development," it added.
This year's budget was signed by Duterte only in April, after a deadlock of several months over the supposed insertions and realignments made by some lawmakers.
From January until the budget was signed, the government was operating on a reenacted 2018 P3.767-trillion budget. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)