Retain P20B hike in DA’s budget to lower inflation – Arroyo
Credit to Author: kadraneda| Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2019 06:25:37 +0000
MANILA, Philippines — With the impending passage of the 2019 national budget by the Senate, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday reiterated her call to increase by about P20 billion the proposed P123.7-billion allocation for the Department of Agriculture (DA) this year.
Arroyo earlier asked the House small committee on appropriations to increase the budget of the DA by P20 billion to help in further lowering the rate of increase in goods and services.
“We have to make sure the increase in the DA budget is retained in the final budget because it will enable the DA to implement measures that will help farmers and increase production needed to control inflation,” the Pampanga 2nd District congresswoman said in a statement, noting that since she was President, the budget for the agency had “dropped significantly.”
“As we were analyzing the budget, we realized that from six percent of the budget in my time, agriculture went down afterwards to 1.5 percent. No wonder we have shortage of food,” the economist former President-turned-lawmaker said. /kga