Duterte signs 2020 budget
Credit to Author: Catherine S. Valente, TMT| Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:06:26 +0000
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 on Monday, preventing a repeat of last year’s delay that slowed the country’s economic growth.
of 2020 as Senate Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano
look on. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The President signed Republic Act 11465 or the “2020 General Appropriations Act” during a ceremony in Malacañang.
In his speech, Duterte assured the public that every peso in the budget would not be spent for the “greed of the few.”
“I am pleased to join you today as we welcome the New Year with hope — much hope for the future of our nation. The passage of the 2020 General Appropriations Act is proof that with the invaluable help of both Houses of Congress, this government can effectively work together toward the enactment of key legislative measures that will support our development agenda in the next two and a half years,” Duterte said.
“Representing almost 20 percent of our projected GDP (gross domestic product) for 2020, this year’s 4.1 trillion budget will support our vision of a more peaceful and progressive Philippines — an upper bracket-income country that has already cut poverty rate to just 14 percent and achieved a 7.5-percent GDP growth by 2022,” he added.
As in previous years, Duterte said the government would continue to allocate “a great portion” of the national budget for infrastructure development and social services, programs “that will directly touch the lives of our people.”
“We will spend [36] percent of the budget to fund programs on education, healthcare, housing and social welfare,” the President said.
“To further boost our thriving economy, we will likewise invest 29 percent of the budget in infrastructure, tourism, trade, job generation and agriculture. We will also allocate 11 percent of the budget for debt servicing, with the ultimate goal of bringing down government debt to just 39 percent of the GDP by 2022,” he added.
The 2020 budget is 12-percent higher than the P3.757-national budget for 2019 and represents 19.5 percent of the country’s projected GDP this year.
The Education and Public Works departments have the biggest budgets, with the Department of Education receiving P692.6 billion and the Department of Public Works and Highways getting P581.7 billion.
They are followed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government with a budget of P241.6 billion, of which 78 percent will go to the Philippine National Police.
In his speech, Duterte thanked Congress for supporting the administration’s sound fiscal policies through the continued adoption of the Cash Budgeting System and the full implementation of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program.
“As we look forward to another productive year for this administration, I ask Congress and our civil society partners, as well as my fellow civil servants in the executive department, to remain driven towards our collective goal of providing a more comfortable life for our people,” he said.
“Together, let us ensure that every peso in the budget will never be used to support the selfish greed of the few, but spent exclusively for the benefit and service of Filipino taxpayers,” he added.
Last year, the passage of the P3.757-billion 2019 budget was stalled for four months as lawmakers disagreed on supposed last-minute insertions.