Agriculture, tourism to suffer budget cuts next year

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) are among several agencies whose budgets will be reduced next year.

Under the planned funding ceilings for agencies set by the Department of Budget and Management, funds for the agriculture department will go down by P16.2 billion, from P64.5 billion this year to P48.3 billion next year.

Of the reduction, P14.3 billion will represent cuts in the budget of the office of the agriculture secretary – from P56.6 billion this year to P42.3 billion in 2014.

On the other hand, DOT’s 2014 budget will be slashed by P700 million from P2.9 billion this year to P2.2 billion.

The budget of the agriculture department does not include billions in taxpayers’ subsidy to the National Food Authority, which, according to President Aquino, was in debt by more than P170 billion at the start of his term, and whose officials once said their agency was created not to earn but to lose money.

Despite tens of billions the government has been pouring into agriculture, the sector has been lagging behind other sectors of the economy in terms of growth.

Agriculture is forecast to grow next year by 3.3-3.4 percent, while industry would expand by 7.4-8.6 percent and services by 6.5-7.4 percent.

Funding for the farming sector is covered by a special law, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, which calls for the allocation of at least P20 billion a year for agriculture modernization-related programs and projects.

Despite the huge expenditure for agriculture, the country remains a rice importer.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will lose P1.3 billion, from P23.1 billion this year to the proposed funding ceiling of P21.8 billion for next year.

The Department of Agrarian Reform will have to make do with P20.254 billion next year, down by more than P700 million from this year’s P21.038 billion.

On the other hand, the Department of Public Works and Highways will receive the biggest budgetary increase in 2014. Its outlay would go up by P33.8 billion, from P155.5 billion this year to P189.3 billion next year.

Funds for the Department of Education will jump by P22.6 billion, to P255.2 billion from P232.6 billion. However, funding for 110 state colleges and universities will go down by P900 million, from P32.8 billion to P31.9 billion.

Clarifying a story in The STAR about the reduction in the planned combined funding for state schools, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has said the funding ceilings are not “inflexible.”

He said the final figures would be agreed upon when the President meets with his Cabinet to determine the final shape of next year’s national budget.

Meanwhile, Bangon Pilipinas lone senatorial candidate Eddie Villanueva called on the Aquino administration yesterday to rethink its allocation of funds by giving priority to the poorest provinces.

He said the government should formulate a new policy on the appropriation of public funds, using poverty index as guide for budget allocation.

According to the poverty data from the National Statistical Coordination Board, 26.5 percent of Filipinos in 2009 were poor or living below the poverty threshold.

Almost half of the 1,643 cities and municipalities have poverty incidences ranging from 32.1 percent to 60 percent, while 67 municipalities have higher than 60 percent poverty incidence. Seventeen of the 20 poorest municipalities in the Philippines are in Mindanao. – With Christina Mendez