Non government organizations spearheaded by former National Treasurer Leonor Briones of Social Watch Philippines are pushing for an alternative budget in lieu of the Php 1.13 T President's 2007 budget already approved by the House of Representatives and now under scrutiny by the Senate.
How does civil society's alternative budget differ with the one that government prepared particularly the DBM? In a nutshell, the civil society version merely proposes for a realignment of some Php 22.7 Billion out of the President's budget with corresponding 50% cut in Intelligence and Confidential expenses, and status quo level on the funding for Philhealth Indigents Subsidy and School Feeding Program.
The realigned funds (I'm using the term realigned from a layman's view, although technically, no realignment can yet be made since the budget is not yet approved) according to Professor Briones, shall be used "to augment appropriations for MDGs-related activities under critical sectors like education, health, agriculture and environment".
Beneficiaries of this alternative proposal are DepEd by P6.3 billion for new teaching and non teaching positions, school buildings, alternative learning system, teachers training, school’s MOOE; CHED (P882 million for scholarship; DOH by P8.5 billion for primary health care, child survival, reproductive health,etc.; Agriculture (P3.7 billion)to fund irrigation, water-resources development, farmers training, farm-to-market roads and post harvest; among others.
My own gut feel: I'm inclined to support this NGO-led initiative not just for tranparency and participatory purposes, but also for this government to provide more focus on its spending towards addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Latest survey (my post of Oct. 17th) shows that we are lagging behind in several MDG indeces.
Will the government bite? Probably a compromise can be made considering that the Senate may support the proposal. Otherwise, we are heading for another impasse and may end up with another re-enacted budget.
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