Budget Message of President Aquino free essay sample

These past two years, we have remained conscious of the budget’s role in advancing our national agenda; and we have achieved historic feats. In 2011 and 2012, the men and women of this Congress acted with diligence and urgency in enacting the National Budgets. In fact, the General Appropriations Act of 2012 was the earliest enacted budget since our countrymen restored true democracy in 1986. For this, and for your support to our development agenda as funded by those budgets, I congratulate and thank you. As we move forward along the straight and righteous path, we have continuously planted and nurtured the seeds of reform with the annual Budgets enacted under this Administration. We have prioritized the people’s most urgent needs in order to genuinely and efficiently address poverty and inequality. We have worked tirelessly to ensure that public funds are managed judiciously and with minimum waste. We have fostered a new culture of openness, transparency, and participation in the budget process, and throughout the bureaucracy. Using the Budget, we have successfully worked to reinforce the foundations on which our public institutions are built—we have made them less prone to corruption, more results-driven, and, ultimately, more deserving of our bosses’ trust. Malinaw ang  Atas ng Taumbayan: siguruhin na ang bawat piso ay nagagamit nang tama at nagdudulot ng makabuluhang benepisyo sa kanilang buhay. Atas nila ang pagtahak sa landas tungo sa paggugol na matuwid sa kaban ng bayan. Wala silang ibang inaasahan sa atin kundi siguruhing diretso sa karaniwang tao ang pakinabang, hindi sa bulsa ng iilan sa poder. The Empowerment Budget of 2013 On behalf of your constituents, I ask you to examine and thereafter approve this proposed P2. 006-trillion National Budget for 2013. This proposed Budget is 10. 5 percent higher than this year’s budget of P1. 816 trillion. The expenditure program is consistent with our macroeconomic and fiscal aspiration for the next fiscal year and in the medium-term. Above that,  this budget is a crucial step in our continuing pursuit of good governance—governance that will give our impoverished countrymen the opportunity to lift themselves out of their situations; governance that will ensure that this country moves forward together. The idea has been clear from day one:  Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. We can succeed in this goal only if government continues to empower the people. This means enabling them to take control of their own lives. It means listening to them intently, and consulting with them as regards the services that affect their day-to-day lives. It means recognizing their power over their own government. It means giving them back that power, and, together with them, shaping the destiny of our nation. This is why we have crafted a  budget of empowerment. This Budget pursues empowerment by creating more opportunities for public participation in governance. It invests significantly in the people’s capabilities by prioritizing funding for public services that provide jobs, educate our youth, ensure a healthier citizenry, and empower each Filipino to participate in economic activity. Needless to say, this is not a budget that government crafted in an enclosed room that will work only for the benefit of a select few; this is the budget that the Filipino people entrusted to us; and this is the budget that will be the framework of our efforts to give our people a government that truly works for them. With that, let me share with you the principles and strategies that guided us in crafting this budget. Greater and Deeper Commitment to the Social Contract This Administration stands by the Social Contract we forged with the Filipino People back in 2010. The proposed Budget for 2013 proves our solid commitment to fulfill the Social Contract. This Social Contract has been fleshed out in the Philippine Development Plan for 2011 to 2016 and has been operationalized by Executive Order No. 43, which defines the five Key Result Areas (KRAs) of the Social Contract: 1. Transparent, Accountable, and Participatory Governance; 2. Poverty Reduction and Empowerment of the Poor and Vulnerable; 3. Rapid, Inclusive, and Sustained Economic Growth; 4. Just and Lasting Peace and the Rule of Law; and 5. Integrity of the Environment and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. In crafting the proposed Budget for 2013, we prioritized the allocation of public funds through the  Program Budgeting Approach, which we used for the first time to maximize the benefit of all government endeavors to the Filipino people. Program Budgeting helped us plan our budget according to the strategic objectives of government, and in a manner that is based on results. Through this approach, we have identified a number of strategic programs within our Key Result Areas that will have a positive, tangible impact on the lives of our people, and should receive priority funding. For Poverty Reduction, we focused on the following programs: the  Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program  (4Ps), which will give our least fortunate families income lifelines; the Housing Program, which will give those living in danger zones new, permanent homes where they can stay and earn a decent, dignified living; and finally, programs that will ensure that our people will be given the opportunity to pursue their goals in life, namely the Basic Education Program and the Universal Health Care Program. For Rapid, Inclusive, and Sustained Economic Growth, we are pushing forward tourism development; food self-sufficiency; electrification, road and transportation upgrades; and the promotion of small and medium scale industries. We are also laying down the groundwork to accelerate our Public-Private Partnership program with regard to strategic infrastructures. Through Program Budgeting, we are likewise intensifying the level at which our departments and agencies coordinate, cooperate, and collaborate. Without doubt, this will allow us to fulfill our Social Contract with the Filipino People sooner rather than later. Dapat nang wakasan ang manipis at hiwa-hiwalay na pagtugon sa kahirapan at iba pang suliranin ng ating lipunan. Panahon na para pagbuklurin ang ating lakas. To complement the Program Budgeting Approach, we have continued using the  Zero-Based Budgeting  approach to make certain that we are funding programs that are both efficient and will be felt by Filipinos in their daily lives. Limitado ang kaban ng ating bayan. Dapat siguruhin na ang bawat piso ay nagagamit nang tama, at hindi nasasayang, para sa mga programang may tuwiran, agaran at makabuluhang pakinabang sa mamamayan, lalo na sa mga mahihirap. Accelerated Completion of Priority Program Targets To ensure the swift fulfillment of our Social Contract, we have adopted policy measures to help national agencies accelerate their completion of priority program targets. We have designated the  Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as the principal infrastructure agency. This means that they will take charge of the timely implementation of critical infrastructure projects, including roads and bridges, classrooms, rural health facilities, farm-to-market roads, bridges for agrarian reform communities and tourism access roads, as well as other projects identified in the master plans of departments tasked with the primary provision of these infrastructures: the Departments of Education (DepEd), Health (DoH), Agriculture (DA), Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Tourism (DoT). The Department of Public Works and Highways has already reformed its procurement processes, project specification standards, and cost structures. It has also established digital solutions to enable public access to information on infrastructure projects. With these, the DPWH is now more equipped to undertake project design, cost review, procurement, and the supervision of infrastructure projects for other government agencies. We know what Secretary Rogelio Singson and the DPWH are capable of; and we are confident that the P409. 8 billion we have set aside for infrastructure outlays, including GOCC allocation, will be used for the right projects, at the right cost, and with the right quality, all of which will be delivered right on time. Through this arrangement, we are certain that the DPWH will empower our Line Agencies, and allow them to focus on fulfilling their core mandates. The DAR, for example, will be able to focus more on implementing Land Acquisition and Distribution, so that they can successfully complete the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms by 2014. Instead of worrying about the classroom shortage, our Department of Education will be able to focus on improving literacy and other areas under our Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They will also be able to make certain that the K-12 program remains effective. The DoH can likewise concentrate on the delivery of primary healthcare services for the less fortunate, and on the universal healthcare insurance coverage of all poor households in the two lowest quintiles by 2013. Finally, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) can fully focus on ensuring the coverage and the compliance of the 3. 8 million households under our conditional cash transfer program. We have to utilize our funds in a manner that is faster and more efficient, so that we can accomplish our critical programs and projects ahead of time, if possible. This is why I instructed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to set up a system for  closer performance monitoring. We will be deploying Account Management Teams (AMTs) to nine major departments, initially: DPWH, DepEd, DoH, DSWD, DAR, DA, DoTC, DND, and DILG. They will be closely monitoring the financial and physical performance of these departments, and compare them against their schedules of work plans, targets, and budget execution documents. Strengthening Government Accountability to Perform We envision the National Budget to continue being an instrument of strengthening the accountability of all public institutions. This will allow us to raise the standards of integrity in governance, and, more than that, to raise the benchmarks of performance as well. Pagdating sa paggugol ng kaban ng bayan, ang bawat piso ay dapat may tuwiran at nasusukat na resulta. Our proposed Budget for 2013 deepens our  performance budgeting and performance management  system. Right now, our performance management system in government is unacceptably fragmented.