P1.645 trillion nat’l gov’t budget signed into law

MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III signed on December 27 into law at Malacanang’s Rizal Hall the P1.645-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2011, the first financial blueprint of the Aquino administration.

Present during the occasion were Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Senator Franklin Drilon, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and several other members of Congress.

“The Reform Budget of 2011 has now been enacted. In the run-up to this momentous occasion, we have achieved key ‘firsts’ in public expenditure management,” Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad said.

Among these, he said, is that it will be the first time in 11 years that the GAA is enacted before the fiscal year starts.

“We are now shunning the old, inefficient and crooked practice of re-enactment by ensuring that our budget is passed on time and implemented early,” Abad said.

The budget chief also said it was the first time this year that the national budget was prepared using the zero-based budgeting (ZBB) approach.

“This allowed us to reduce or terminate funding for projects or programs which are ineffective, inefficient or fraught with leakages, and to expand funding for those which are well-performing and are critical for development,” he explained.

Furthermore, he stressed that the 2011 Reform Budget is the first budget with transparency and accountability provisions integrated within the GAA text.

“These general and special provisions require us to disclose key information on budgetary appropriations and releases using new information technology. This government has nothing to hide from the people,” Abad said.

He also said that it was also the first time that ways and means to institutionalize citizen participation in the budget process have begun to be discussed with civil society organizations (CSOs).

“In fact, CSOs will already participate in preparing the 2012 budget,” he added.

“Pinakamahalaga sa lahat, inuuna ng Reform Budget of 2011 ang maralita nating mga kababayan (Most importantly, the Reform Budget of 2011 puts our poor countrymen first). This budget puts into pesos the Aquino government’s unabashed bias for the poor,” Abad stressed.

The DBM chief said the 2011 budget significantly invests in poverty reduction, with the social services sector receiving the lion’s share of 34.1 percent of the budget, a 16.8 percent increase, which is the highest gain among sectors.