MANILA – The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday submitted to the House of Representatives the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for Fiscal Year 2021 amounting to PHP4.506 trillion.
The proposed 2021 national budget is 9.9 percent higher than the PHP4.1-trillion appropriations for 2020 and equivalent to 21.8 percent of the gross domestic Product (GDP).
The formal submission of the 2021 NEP was led by DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Avisado said the proposed 2021 budget, with the theme of is “Reset, Rebound, and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability”, will help sustain government’s efforts against the coronavirus pandemic by improving the country’s healthcare systems, ensuring food security, creating more jobs, enabling a digital government and economy, and building community resilience in these trying times.
“We, in government, must be able to effectively respond and with the fiscal year 2021 NEP, we hope to fully address the impact of the health crisis and accelerate our economic recovery,” Avisado said.
The bulk of next year’s proposed budget will be provided to the social services sector amounting to PHP1.664 trillion, equivalent to 36.9 percent. This includes funding support for programs related to health, social protection, and education.
The economic services sector will receive the second highest allocation with PHP1.347 trillion or 29.9 percent of the proposed budget.
Meanwhile, the General Public Services sector will be allocated with PHP724.2 billion, Debt Burden with PHP560.2 billion, and Defense with PHP210.6 billion.
The Department of Education (DepEd), including state universities and colleges, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, remains the top agency with the biggest slice from the proposed budget with an allocation of PHP754.4 billion.
This is followed by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with a proposed budget of PHP667.3 billion, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) with PHP246.1 billion, the Department of National Defense(DND) with PHP209.1 billion, the Department of Health (DOH) with PHP203.1 billion, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with PHP171.2 billion, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) with PHP143.6 billion, the Department of Agriculture with PHP66.4 billion, the Judiciary with PHP43.5 billion, and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) with PHP27.5 billion.
Cayetano said the House is aiming to approve the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act by end of September, and have it signed by President Rodrigo Duterte by November.
“We will try to finish the budget before the end of September. [It’s a] very ambitious schedule, to send it right away to the Senate because we hope for the first time, if I’m not mistaken, in history, we can sign the budget maybe late November or mid-November as a sign of unity by our country,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano also assured transparency during the budget deliberations.
“We will be very transparent and all the members of the opposition here sa House, we will give you first a copy of the budget and listen to you first and give you more time sa budget deliberations para ito pong (during the budget deliberations so that this) budget will be a product of the whole of Congress,” he said. (PNA)
