– Ungab says budget is bigger and biased for the poor
THE 2012 General Appropriations Bill, simply called national budget, gives a bigger share to Mindanao compared to the 2011 budget.
This was bared by Davao City Rep. Isidro T. Ungab, who is vice chair for finance of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
The lawmaker from the city’s third Congressional district said Mindanao leaders and their representatives in Congress worked hard to increase Mindanao’s share in the annual budget from 27 percent in 2011 to 32.8 percent of the P1.8-trillion budget in 2012.
Ungab said the general appropriations bill was ratified by the Congress bicameral conference committee of the House and Senate last week and is expected to be signed by President Benigno Aquino III on December 15.
As vice chair for finance of the House committee on appropriations, Ungab is charged with the responsibility of deliberating on the budgets of the Department of Finance and its revenue-earning agencies such as the bureau of internal revenue (BIR) and bureau of customs (BoC), the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Assets Privatization Trust, Bureau of the Treasury, Bureau of Local Government Finance, National Economic and Development Authority, Securities and Exchange Commission, Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) board and Legislative Executive Advisory Council (Ledac).
The Calinan-born lawmaker said the budget is pro-poor .
“It is designed to achieve President Aquino’s priorities in promoting social services, supporting economic growth and reducing poverty,” he said.
“The budget next year is higher than this year’s P1.6-trillion,” said Ungab, adding, “We will also have a lower projected budget deficit in 2012 and lesser borrowings compared to the previous year’s.”
All these augur well for Mindanao, where the poverty rate is one of the country’s highest, he said.
He said the House committee started deliberating on the proposed budget on August 1st, soon after President Aquino submitted the money measure a day after he delivered his State Of the Nation Address (SONA).
Among the highlights of the ratified appropriations bill is the increase of P500 million for irrigation projects of the Department of Agriculture, P351 million for the House of Representatives to provide for the actual requirements for personal services which were not provided for under the National Expenditure Program as well as the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), P96.69 million for the Senate for the operational requirements of the 5th Global Conference of the Global Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), to bring the budgets of oversight committees to the Fiscal Year 2011 level, and for the repair and construction of committee rooms and executive conference rooms.
He said the measure also sets aside P100 million for the initial operations of the newly-created Governance Commission for Government-Owned and –Controlled Corporations (GOCCs). Proposed by Senator Franklin Drilon, the commission was established to closely monitor the performance GOCCs and to check their excesses in the past.
Earlier, Ungab said that local government units (LGUs) hurting over their reduced share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) in 2012 need not worry because it is a temporary situation that will improve in 2013 and the years to follow.
He said leaders and their constituents in the cities and provinces in the Davao Region can look forward to much bigger shares of the IRA in 2013 and beyond because of the country’s high revenue collections in 2010 and 2011.
He said the reduction in the IRA next year is a result of the low tax collection in 2009. The creation of 16 new cities also reduces the share of the old ones.
Ungab also has good news for Davao City residents saying that several projects are earmarked for the city. The Third District alone, projects worth close to P500 million are being lined for implementation, according to Ungab, who promised to bare details of the projects as soon as their implementation starts.
