Admin to hike funding for poverty reduction

MANILA, Philippines - With the aim of reducing the poverty rate to 16.6 percent by the end of its term, the Aquino administration will increase funding for poverty reduction programs, the government’s top budget official said.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad said this is seen in the budget of the social services sector, which would continue to corner the lion’s share of the budget.

The sector will get 31.7 percent or P575.8 billion of the proposed P1.816-trillion budget for 2012, data from the Budget Department showed.

“The proposed budget level for social services for 2012 is higher by 10.4 percent over its current year’s budgetary allocation of P521.4 billion,” Abad said.

Consistent with the administration’s thrust of providing for social services, Abad said education, public healthcare and social services would be prioritized.

For instance, he said the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would increase to P49.4 billion in 2012 from P34.3 billion this year or an increase of 43.9 percent.

This is due to the expansion of the government’s conditional cash transfer program to cover three million indigent households.

Under the 2012 budget, the program will receive P39.5 billion or 86.17 percent higher than its current level of P21.19 billion.

Similarly, Abad said the government would raise the budget for the Department of Education (DepEd) by 15.2 percent to P238.8 billion in 2012 from this year’s P207.3 billion.

 “In particular, the Basic Educational Facilities Fund will increase by 54.28 percent to P17.4 billion from P11.291 billion; while the Regular School Building Program will again be provided with P1 billion. All in all, this will provide 41,381 additional classrooms, 2.53 million seats, and 25,667 water and sanitation facilities,” he said.

The Department of Health will get a budget increase of 34.84 percent to P43.4 billion from this year’s P33.2 billion.

“Premium subsidies under the National Health Insurance Program increased to P12 billion in 2012 from this year’s P3.5 billion,” Abad said.