MANILA — A lawmaker at the House of Representatives pressed the Department of Economy, Planning and Development on its budget strategy during plenary deliberations, asking why allocations for lump-sum assistance programs were increased while vital investments in education, health, and agriculture saw cuts.
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Caloocan 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice asked why assistance programs such as the Local Government Support Fund, Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, and the TUPAD cash-for-work saw increases despite low fund utilization rates.
“Bakit yun ang dinadagdagan? Bakit yung pondo para sa edukasyon, para sa health, bakit yun ang binabawasan?”
(Why were those increased? Why was funding for education and health lowered?)
He said that only 58% of the LGSF fund has been used and aid programs AICS and TUPAD still have funds available.
Sultan Kudarat 2nd District Rep. Bella Suansing, DEPDev budget sponsor and House Committee on Appropriations vice chairperson, said the department does not directly craft the National Expenditure Program.
"The DepDev can't speak with regards to the allocations of sectors," she said, adding that decreases "in certain sectors" are adjustments for "a one-off increase because of what happened in the last budget deliberation."
Pressing the issue, Erice made a direct appeal to make funding for "human capital development, livelihood support, and agricultural productivity" a priority.
Erice also raised sharp concerns about whether the national budget effectively fuels long-term national development or merely funds assistance programs that have low utilization rates and need to be funded yearly.
Suansing said the DEPDev formulates policies and gives recommendations "but it doesn't really have power over the loans contracted."
Erice, however, pressed further and pointed out a declining gross domestic product (GDP) and sluggish recovery compared to neighboring countries. He questioned whether adequate studies exist regarding delayed public investments, weakening private investments, and questionable infrastructure projects.
"We cannot always blame the external factors samantalang yung mga kalapit bansa natin ay nakarecover na (neighboring countries have already recovered)."
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Suansing countered that DEPDev utilizes fiscal multipliers to inform budget crafting, citing estimated gross value-added multipliers across different sectors.
“For at least one of the considerations that the DEPDev used with regards to informing the budget crafting would be the fiscal multipliers,” she said.
According to Suansing, the estimated multiplier for public administration stands at 2.03, agriculture at 1.24, public education at 2.33, and public health at 1.32.