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National budget

The budget is likened to the projected expenses that a family will spend for a certain period of time. Usually, the family expenses can be projected for a week, two-weeks or a month. This is done to cope up with the economic situation plaguing our country. But of course you have something to budget if you have income or base your budget on a projected income.

Traditionally, a mother (or rarely a father or guardian) does the budgeting. The basic allocation for her budget prioritizes food, education, health and other basic services among others. This is understandable as naturally a mother always prioritizes her family needs.

But talking about the budget on the national level, it seems the priorities are very different from the needs of a family mentioned above. Both houses of congress have a proposal on the 2006 national budget. Though stalled, if I am not mistaken, the budget totals to P 1.053 trillion or equivalent to US $ 19.3 billion.

The biggest pie of the budget is allocated for debt services which totals to P340 billion. This allocation is only for the interests, the principal amount is excluded. By the way, our debt are classified as local or foreign. And our foreign debt already totals to $ 55.5 B. Most of the past and present government’s incurred debts are considered oderous as it failed to benefit the Filipino people but only few cronies. Look at the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). The BNPP sits on a fault line which led to its non-use since it was established.

The biggest allocation is mandated by the former president Marcos through the Automatic Appropriation Act, which is still a valid and binding law as the congress never repeal or amended it. A Bayan Muna bill, which aimed to amend the automatic appropriation provision of the Act slept in congress.

Going back with the other budget allocation, it included the following:

• The Department of Education is allocated with P 119.1 billion. It appears to be among the highest. But the budget for military schools like the Philippine Military Acadmemy is included here.
• The Department of Public Works and Highways with P 62.3 billion;
• The Department of National Defense with P 51.6 billion;
• The Department of Interior and Local Government with P 45.6 billion;
• The Department of Agriculture with P 15.6 billion;
• The other departments remain to share small amounts. The Department of Health receives the lowest. The department budget last year was equivalent to thirty five centavos per day for every Filipino.

What then is new with the proposed 2006 budget? Nothing actually. But what I would like to point out is that, government policies related on the budget remains to be worst. Like a family budget, the Filipino people are being denied of the resources in favor of these profit-hungry creditors. And the present administration of pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has no political will to go away from this debt-oriented and dependent economy.

Will your new year be happy with these policies? #

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