MANILA: Senate President Franklin Drilon yesterday expressed concern over the drop in government spending in 2014, which could be a result of the “chilling effect” of the Supreme Court’s declaration of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as partly unconstitutional.
Drilon pointed to signs of looming underspending of the government during the Senate’s hearing on the proposed P2.606tr national budget for 2015. “For the first quarter of 2014, the gross domestic product is only 5.7 percent, which is lower than the 7.7-percent growth rate we achieved in the same period in 2013,” Drilon noted.
“The underspending is also visible in the decline in government consumption for the first quarter this year, which only reached two percent, way below the 10-percent level during the same period last year,” he added.
But Budget Secretary Florencio Abad seemed not to agree with Drilon when asked if there was basis for fear of economic slowdown due to alleged underspending in the first half of the year.
“I don’t think so, because we will have a good five months left. If you recall in 2011, the last quarter was a big boost to the economy as a result of DAP,” Abad said.
“What we want to do is we continue to accelerate both the rehabilitation and reconstruction as well as the implementation of the regular programme because we want to see more impact on the economy because we are looking at 6.5-to 7.5-percent growth for this year,” he added.
The Philippine star
