National Budget 2016

Aquino signs P3.002 trillion budget for 2016.

This is the 6th and last passed under the under the Aquino administration. MANILA, Philippines

(3rd UPDATE)? President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday, December 22, signed into law the

P3.002 trillion national budget for 2016.

The 2016 budget is the biggest national funding to date.

In a speech in Malacaang, the President said: "Malinaw po: Ang buong gaya sa

imprastraktura ay binubuo gamit ang masusing pag-aaral ng mga suliranin at ng kaakibat

nitong wastong solusyon. Ang bawat ipinapatayong kalsada, tulay, daungan, paliparan,

paaralan, farm-to-market roads, at iba pang imprastraktura sa ibat ibang bahagi ng bansa ay

bahagi ng ating estratehiya tungo sa malawakang kaunlaran." (It's clear that the entire is based

on a serious study of problems and solutions to them. Each road, bridge, school, airport, or farm-

to-market road that is built is according to our strategy of inclusive growth.)

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said: "With this budget, we have doubled the national

budget since 2010 and we are providing the largest sectoral allocation to social services. This

budget also caps the administration's record of enacting the budget in time for a perfect 6 straight

times."

According to him, next years budget is double the first budget that Aquino passed in

2010, which was P1.645 trillion. It is also the 6th and last budget to be passed under the current

administration.
 In the last 5 years, the Congress and the Executive had promptly passed the budget,

preventing a re-enactment of the previous years appropriation scheme. A budget re-enactment

occurred at least 4 times during former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos decade-long rule.

Biggest shares

In a statement, Abad said the 2016 GAA is higher by P396 billion or 15.2% than the

P2.606-trillion 2014 national budget. The focus continues to be on social services that directly

benefit individual citizens, such as education and health, both with increased budgetary

allocations at P436.5 billion and P128.5 billion, respectively, he added.

"It can be gleaned that for every P100 of the 2016 budget, around P64 will be spent on

social and economic services. This clearly shows how the government is wisely investing on its

people, with the foresight of supporting services that will keep serving their needs long into the

future," said Abad.

Other notable inclusions in the budget were the P64 billion allocation for the Conditional

Cash Transfer (CCT) Program and the doubling of the Vice Presidents budget from P230

million to P500 million. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund was also

allotted P38.9 billion. (READ: House ratifies P3-trillion national budget for 2016).

Also for the first time, funds have been alloted for the pension of surviving spouses of

World War II veterans. It also includes the partial payment of the total administrative disability

(TAD) of living war veterans who are at least 80 years old by 2016.
 It also includes budget for the first tranche of implementation of the proposed salary hike

for government workers under the new Salary Standardization Law, which is still pending at the

Senate for ratification.

Focus on social and economic services

Abad earlier said the 2016 budget represents the governments commitment to invest in

people.

He noted that compared to previous administrations, budgets passed from 2010 to 2016 provided

for the highest allocations on social and economic services.

Abad also boasted of high impact budget reforms that have enhanced the operational

efficiency of agencies, as well as accountability and transparency in the budget process.

Among the reforms he was referring to were the Bottom-up budgeting (BuB) program and the

Performance Informed Budgeting (PIB).

The BuB, he said, opened for the participation of 1,590 cities and municipalities in the budget

planning process.

While through the PIB, government agencies are committed to implementing their projects by

submitting their Major Final Outputs (MFO) to Congress that will serve as an indicator of how

much resource will be allocated to their offices. It also made it easier to gauge the performance

of an agency. Compared to the traditional line-item based budgeting, it links funding to results,

Abad said. This enabled agencies to meet their targets and timelines and address the causes of

underspending, such as problems in procurement, he added.