DPWH overtakes DepEd, get bigger budget this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is the biggest gainer in the P4.1-trillion national budget for this year, overtaking the Department of Education (DepEd) for the first time in years.

In the 2020 General Appropriations Act signed by President Duterte last Monday, DPWH was given P580.886 billion after Congress restored its budget cut and even augmented the agency’s fund.

DepEd, which historically had the biggest budget among agencies, got only P521.35 billion for this year as the department slipped to second place.

Based on the report of its bicameral conference committee, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, Congress augmented the DPWH’s budget by some P318.4 billion.

The executive branch initially proposed a P534.3-billion budget for DPWH in this year’s  National Expenditure Program submitted by the Department of Budget and Management.

The Senate, however, cut this by P267.3 billion during deliberations.

But during the bicameral conference committee that includes senators and congressmen, lawmakers from both the House and Senate decided to restore the budget cut and augmented DPWH’s fund with P51.1 billion, which represented the net increase in the agency’s budget.

The DepEd, on the other hand, got a net increase of only P1.7 billion from its proposed budget of P550.89 billion.

The agency’s allotment this year is lower than its P531.57-billion budget in 2019.

The 1987 Constitution provides that “the State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education.”

But despite the DepEd’s drop to second rank in terms of budgetary appropriations per agency, the education sector still has the biggest portion in the 2020 budget with about P655 billion.

The Commission on Higher Education got an allocation of P46.732 billion for this year, state universities and colleges got P73.716 billion while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has P12.974 billion.

Before its approval of the 2020 budget, the Senate made at least P45 billion in amendments and realignments in favor of projects on education, health, agriculture, labor and government salaries.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano had earlier confirmed that each congressional district would get P500 million worth of projects under the record-high national budget.

But Cayetano had denied allegations that such allocation are “pork barrel” or the kind of appropriation declared illegal by the Supreme Court (SC) and had been a source of corruption in government.

Cayetano assured the people that the 2020 budget is “pork-free” and compliant with the SC ruling, which prohibited lump sum allocations and post-enactment budgeting. He explained that the funds for infrastructure projects in congressional districts will be handled by the DPWH.

Deputy Speaker and 1-Pacman party-list Rep. Mikee Romero lauded the increase in the government’s budget for public works and infrastructure.

Romero said this increase in spending will benefit the economy both on the local and national levels.

“Building bridges, roads and other infrastructure in provinces will boost economy in our regions because it will improve tourism and investment environment in our regions. For the national level, an increase in government spending will always benefit the economy,” he added.