MANILA: President Benigno Aquino signed yesterday the $48bn budget for 2013 that aims to empower people through better social services and pump up the economy to sustain growth before the ban on spending takes effect due to the elections in May.
Aquino said there were five guiding principles to be followed in the use of the budget to eliminate leakages and adhere to the administration’s “there are no poor if there are no corrupt” slogan.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said during the first week of the year, the government would roll out the public-private partnership (PPP) projects and other infrastructure programs with a total capital outlay of about P400bn (almost $10bn).
“With the start of the implementation of many PPPs and the frantic spending that will accompany the 2013 May elections, it’s going to be a robust first semester,” Abad said.
He said the ban on spending will begin on March 29, but the pre-procurement activities that happened this year would give the administration time to complete them.
“Many of these projects can exceed or even be completed before the election ban. Many of the PPP projects are private, non-government projects that can proceed and we should be able to ask for exemption for some of the national infrastructure projects,” he said.
The budget chief said they could see a stronger fourth quarter growth because they had been able to deal with the bottlenecks and the stumbling blocks to project implementation. He said the government was able to frontload projects for 2013 like roads, tourism and flood control.
This was the third consecutive year that the budget was signed on time instead of getting re-enacted.
Present during the signing were Senators Franklin Drilon and Edgardo Angara, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr, Budget Secretary Abad, Deputy Speakers Pablo Garcia and Lorenzo Tanada III, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II and 1st District Negros Oriental Representative Jocelyn Limkaichong.
Aquino said the budget is a fulfilment of his promise to use the national coffers to improve the people’s lives. He thanked Congress leaders, including Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who was not present during the ceremony, and Belmonte for the passage of the budget bill on time.
The Philippine star
