High population cuts Filipinos' daily budget entitlements

MANILA, Philippines - A high population growth rate and a substantial allotment for debt payments have reduced each Filipino’s daily budget allocation to a mere P20, the lawmaker who led last year’s budget deliberations in the House said on Thursday. “We cannot bail out our country from the economic doldrums if we are unable to successfully confront and solve two ballooning problems: the inordinately huge debt service which devours an enormous portion of the annual budget, and a rapidly growing population which virtually makes the yearly appropriations meaningless because of the multitude of beneficiaries sharing finite resources," said former Appropriations committee chair Edcel Lagman in his speech during the House plenary deliberations on the proposed P1.41-trillion national budget for 2009. Lagman said P768.405 billion or 54.3 percent of the P1.41-trillion proposed budget does not accrue to the general public. He broke down the “non-productive" allocation as follows: P302.65 billion for debt service interest payment, P429.72 billion for personal services, P12.15 for net lending, and P23.87 billion for other mandatories. If the remaining 45.7 percent or P646.59 billion is divided among the 88.4 million Filipinos, the per capita budgetary allocation will be P7,314.42 annually or a miniscule P20.04 daily per Filipino, said Lagman. “Our people's share in the budget pie will correspondingly become bigger if we are able to mitigate further the population growth rate," said Lagman, the principal author of the controversial Reproductive Health bill. He urged the House leadership to prioritize the passage of Joint Resolution No. 04, which seeks to create a Congressional Commission that will audit the procurement, utilization, and repayment of all loans, as well as of House Bill No. 329 and other similar proposals that aim for the repeal of automatic appropriations for debt service as stated in the Revised Administrative Code. “We must recapture this Chamber’s constitutional power over the purse which has long been derogated," said Lagman. The House of Representatives suspended its four-day workweek starting Thursday to make way for the plenary debates on the proposed P1.41-trillion national budget for 2009. It is looking to finish the second reading of the proposed budget before Congress session adjourns on October 11. - GMANews.TV