MANILA, Philippines -- President Macapagal-Arroyo will open on Monday a high-profile national conference intended to draw up a comprehensive action plan against the impact of climate change in the Philippines.

But how does climate change?especially the more tangible problem of perennial flooding in the country?really figure in the government?s list of funding priorities?

An advocacy group scrutinizing government appropriations on Sunday called attention to what it called ?paltry? funding for flood control programs and projects since 2002.

This year, for instance, only P6.2 billion was set aside for flood control in the Department of Public Works and Highways? (DPWH) total budget of P130 billion, according to Joseph Ranola, president of the Center for National Budget Legislation (CNBL).

Ranola noted that the DPWH has been the main government agency in charge of flood control.

From 2002 to 2009, there had been no significant increase in the DPWH?s annual funding for flood control even as its yearly budget had more than doubled, he pointed out. The DPWH?s total budget rose from P48 billion in 2002 to P130 billion in 2009, data from the CNBL showed.

?You cannot come up with answers to climate change when you can?t even find a solution to the more pressing problem, which is occurring every year?flooding,? Ranola said in an interview. ?This problem is not new.?

He added: "Everybody is talking about the problem, but nobody is pointing to the solution to the problem which is budget."

Ms Arroyo will deliver the keynote address in Monday?s National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation +2 at the Diamond Hotel in Manila.

In a statement, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said the conference would ?make an inventory of climate change adaptation best practices and science-based information to form a consensus on the Philippine Strategic Framework on Climate Change Adaptation.?

The lowest funding the DPWH flood control project got during the Arroyo administration was at P4.5 billion in 2004, when the entire agency had a P41.25-billion budget.

In 2007, flood control received its highest allocation so far of P8.2 billion, the same year the DPWH budget was jacked up to P71.2 billion.

Ranola?s group said around P54.5 billion was earmarked from the DPWH?s annual budgets for flood control from 2002 to 2010. Of the amount, P38.5 billion was funded by foreign assistance.

Still, he noted that the accumulated allocation for flood control was easily dwarfed by the amount of the DPWH?s budget of P535 billion for the same seven-year period.