Palace approves P1.816-T budget proposal for 2012

The Palace on Thursday approved the proposed P1.816-trillion budget for 2012, which is 10.4-percent more than the P1.645-trillion appropriations this year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Thursday. In a statement, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said social services —basic education, public health, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (PPP) Program — will get the lion’s share of the proposed budget approved Wednesday night. The Palace has allocated P573.5 billion for social services equivalent to 31.6 percent of the proposed budget, Abad said. He said this is a 10-percent increase from the item’s current allocation of P521.4 billion. The second biggest allocation of P442.1 billion will go to the economic services sector, or 24.3 percent of the proposed 2012 budget, according to the budget chief. He said this is a 22-percent increase from the P361.9 billion allocated for economic services this year “to support rapid, inclusive, and sustainable growth." The secretary said infrastructure and other capital outlays — especially those supporting agriculture, tourism, and industrial development — have received greater emphasis in the proposed budget with a 27.2-percent increase to P243.9 billion from P191.7 billion. “This is a budget that is focused on achieving results: that the dividends of good governance reach the poor in a direct, immediate and substantial way," Abad said. Development scholars and analysts, however, are concern by the long-term effects and benefits of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs such as the PPP, according to a special report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. The PCIJ found the CCT is “a focused, time-bound initiative only for poor Filipino families who would pass the computer-generated targeting of beneficiaries under a 'proxy means test,' and then would have to comply with strict program conditionalities." “Under these terms, the poorest of the poor, notably the ‘food poor’ and the most destitute that walk the streets and do not belong to typical ‘family’ units, are not the targets of the CCT," the PCIJ said. — PE/VS, GMA News