‘2018 budget should focus on Rody’s 10-point agenda’

MANILA, Philippines -  Government agencies should focus their budget proposals for 2018 on the 10-point socioeconomic reform agenda that President Duterte has rolled out until the end of his term in 2022, an administration lawmaker said over the weekend.

“Starting 2018, all government programs and projects should be in sync with the administration’s inclusive growth agenda as this is the fiscal year when the national budget would be fully prepared, studied and drafted,” Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said.

“Priority programs should be a contributing factor to the accomplishment of the goals under the President’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda,” he said in a statement.

These programs should also be supportive of Duterte’s vision to turn the Philippines into an “upper middle-income economy by the end of his term in 2022.”

Villafuerte, vice chairperson of the House appropriations committee, also wants the country’s investments in infrastructure significantly increased, honing the skills of the country’s labor force, and protecting the society’s poor and low-income sectors.

He issued the statement following this month’s release of National Budget Memorandum 127, which directed all government agencies to submit their respective budget proposals for the P3.825-trillion expenditure program for 2018 on or before March 31 this year.

He said a budget proposal attuned to Duterte’s socio-economic reform agenda would be each government agency’s share in fulfilling the vision of sustaining the Philippines’ momentum as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies.

“President Duterte won on the back of the Filipino majority’s frustration and anger over their belief that they have been left behind in the country’s march to high growth under the past administrations,” Villafuerte said. 

He added the “proposed 2018 national budget should be a tool in reversing the nation’s collective frustration and making the people feel the President’s signature campaign promise of real change.”

Duterte’s high-growth agenda aims to spread the benefits of a continuously robust economy to all sectors across the country, which should not be any different from the P3.3-trillion national “budget for real change” this year.