DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado submits to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano the proposed P4.506-trillion budget for 2021. Screenshot from House of Representatives Youtube stream
MANILA, Philippines — With a focus on responding to the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery, the Department of Budget and Management submitted to Congress on Tuesday the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado personally submitted the proposed budget to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano amounting to P4.506 trillion, which is 9.9 percent higher than the 2020 budget.
The theme of this year’s budget, Avisado said, is “Reset, Rebound, and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability.”
“The imposition of community quarantine has had a significant impact on the economic and social activities in our country while our healthcare sector continues to struggle against the pressure of the pandemic,” Avisado said.
“We, in government, must be able to effectively respond and with the fiscal year 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP), we hope to fully address the impact of the health crisis and accelerate our economic recovery,” he added.
The proposed budget, Avisado said, focuses on government spending on improving the country’s healthcare systems, ensuring food security, creating more jobs by investing in labor-intensive projects, enabling a digital government and economy, and helping communities cope.
For the healthcare sector, Avisado said that budgetary support will be provided for the National Health Insurance Program, medical assistance to indigent patients, human resources for health programs, and health facilities enhancement programs, among others.
“The 2021 NEP will also set aside funds for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine and the provision of PPE to DOH hospitals, laboratories, and centers,” Avisado said.
Meanwhile, Avisado said that the Department of Education (DepEd) remains as the top agency with the biggest allocation “to ensure educational continuity amid the health crisis.”
The budget secretary further said that the national gov’t will also continue to advance the Build, Build, Build a program to boost infrastructure development and promote employment.
“To help communities cope and prevail in these trying times, the fiscal year 2021 NEP will also prioritize gov’t programs that will help improve the productivity of Agri and fishery sector, accelerate the recovery of MSMEs, and develop e-competitiveness of local industries,” Avisado said.
“Every peso of the P4.506-T FY 2021 NEP is geared towards saving lives and protecting communities while making various sectors of the economy stronger and more agile,” he added.
For his part, Cayetano welcomed the submission of the proposed budget.
“The bigger bayanihan and the bigger sign of unity will really be the 2021 budget. Hindi ito hiningi ng ating Pangulo na mangyari, hindi ito hiningi ng Kongreso [This was not asked by our President, nor by Congress],” Cayetano said.
“But we have to show our people that we can be proactive and lay certain foundations for the next administration and for the post-COVID-19 world,” he added.
Further, Cayetano said that the lower chamber will try to submit the budget to the Senate by the end of September.
“We will try to finish the budget before the end of September, very ambitious schedule, to send it right away to the Senate because we hope for the first time in history, we can sign the budget maybe late November or mid-November as a sign of unity by our country,” Cayetano said.
“And we will be very transparent, and the members of the opposition in this house, we will give you first a copy of the budget and listen to you first and given more time sa budget deliberations para itong budget will be a product of the whole of Congress, hindi lang ng administrasyon [not only the administration],” he added.