President Aquino to submit increased budget for SUCs to Congress tomorrow

President Benigno S. Aquino III said today in his annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he would be submitting to Congress tomorrow the annual budget for the national government which also includes a 43.61% increase for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).

He said that the he is proposing to Congress to approve SUCs a 43.61 percent increase in the budgets of SUCs for 2013. He said that as a reminder though, that everything was in accordance with a plan: There are corresponding conditions to this budget increase.

He said that the SUC Reform Roadmap of CHED, which has been deliberated and agreed upon, must be enacted to ensure that the students sponsored by the state are of top caliber. "Expect that if you work to get high marks in this assignment, we will be striving just as hard to address the rest of your needs," he said.

Here is the full text of President Aquino's 3rd SONA (2012) in Filipino and English.

Other reforms are expected to be operational and fiscal in nature. For example, the Diliman Diary has been following the progress of the University of the Philippines System in realigning the operations of University-affiliated foundations with Commission on Audit requests for more access to its financial and other data. CHED working with COA and the Department of Management will be working even more closely with U.P. and other SUCs in the future to ensure that these reforms are implemented to the greatest extent possible.

P2.006-T PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS ON TUESDAY


President Bis set to submit the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) for fiscal year 2013 to Congress on Tuesday, 24 July 2012: a day after his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) today.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad, who will be delivering the expenditure plan to Congress on behalf of the President, said that this P2.006-trillion proposed National Budget deepens the Aquino Administration’s commitment to its Social Contract with the Filipino People.

“This proposed Empowerment Budget prioritizes funding for programs and projects that have impact in unshackling the poor from poverty and in reducing poverty incidence to 16.6 percent by 2016. President Aquino has directed us to take bold steps in closing key social service delivery gaps—in classrooms, teachers, health insurance subsidies, rural health facilities, etc.—by 2013,” he said.

“He also instructed us to build on our economic achievements so far, such as the 6.4-percent gross domestic product growth in the first quarter of 2012, by investing in the foundations of rapid, inclusive and sustained growth. With this, we are funding the attainment of rice self-sufficiency by next year; the pavement of all national roads by 2014 and all secondary roads by 2016, the arrival of 5.53 million tourists by next year and 10 million by 2016, among others,” he said.

Abad pointed out that the combined budgetary allocations of the Social Services and Economic Services sector of P1.210 trillion for 2013—60.3 percent of the P2.006-trillion Budget—supports the achievement of the aforementioned targets (Annex A).

The proposed 2013 National Budget consists of P1.251 trillion in Programmed New Appropriations for national government operations, programs and projects; and P755.2 billion in Automatic Appropriations for debt servicing, local government allocations and others (Annex B).

Legislative action and approval will be sought for Programmed New Appropriations as well as for P177.5 billion in Unprogrammed Appropriations, or standby spending authority which the national government may only be utilized when its revenues exceed targets.

The Budget Chief also said that the Proposed Budget for 2013 is the earliest to be submitted to Congress in the last twelve years (Annex C). He said that by submitting the BESF right after the SONA, the Administration is showing its commitment to ensure the early enactment of the Budget.

“Last year, the Administration and Congress worked together to ensure that the 2012 Budget becomes law by 15 December 2011: the earliest Budget enactment since the restoration of our democracy. We look forward to repeating that historical feat,” Abad said.

In the last twelve years, the Proposed Budget for 2001 was submitted on 24 June 2000, as early as the 2013 proposal’s submission, but it was not enacted. Before the Aquino administration, the last Budget to be enacted on time was the 1999 Budget, signed into law on 30 December 1998.

P2-T NATIONAL BUDGET IN 2013 TO SPUR ‘GROWTH WITH EQUITY’ – CASTELO

Rep. Winston “Winnie” Castelo (Liberal Party, 2nd District of Quezon City) today expressed support to the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013, saying the budgetary raise is necessary to spur economic growth with social equity in the country.

“As the embodiment of the country’s explicit and implicit policies, the envisioned P2 trillion national budget for 2013 shows the overall policy shift to sustained economic growth with emphasis on social equity,” Castelo said in a statement.

“The budget raise is expected to impact more on the poor,” Castelo said.
While he did not give a final figure, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad Jr. has earlier announced that the proposed 2013 national budget would hit for the first time the P2-trillion mark, up 11.1 percent from the P1.82 trillion national budget in 2012.

Abad said the proposed 2013 national budget would be funded by revenues, but only 2.0 percent would come from debts, also a major policy shift where the national budgets were funded in the past by heavy domestic borrowings.

While saying that no “final number” on the national budget has been set yet because the Development and Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) would first meet “to review economic assumptions,” Abad said the P2 trillion appeared realistic to pump prime the national economy and sustain economic growth.

The national budget, when used appropriately, is the single biggest instrument, which could stimulate economic growth and development, Castelo said, adding that foreign funds and investments appear nowhere in sight.
Castelo expressed satisfaction that the Aquino administration appeared bent to spend a significant portion of the budgetary increase for key infrastructure and social services, saying they would mean a lot to employment.

“Infrastructure spending promotes massive employment, while heavy expenditures for social services mean that the poor and downtrodden would enjoy the fruits of government spending and economic growth,” Castelo said.
Castelo also said the planned 20 percent increase in the conditional fund transfer (CCT) for the country’s 20 percent of the nation’s “poorest of the poor” households would have a tremendous impact to alleviate mass poverty and extend social services to them.

While he expressed support for a realignment of the CCT fund to extend socialized health care for the poor, Castelo said the planned increase would have positive impact in whichever way it would be employed for the poor people.

Abad said that among the infrastructure being eyed are arterial national roads, which should be finished in 2014, improved spendings in agriculture, and rice self-sufficiency in 2013.

Abad also indicated significant investments in education that by the end of 2013, the government hopes to close the classroom gap of 65,000.

“Social services and economic services like rural electrification, irrigation, roads and bridges, we are going to close, and finish the arterial national roads and bridges by the end of 2014,” Abad said.


According to him, the proposed P2-trillion budget excludes expected revenues from new sin taxes.