A Christmas Message

We are in the midst of a global financial crisis and every nation, the Philippines included, is pre-occupied in putting fiscal stimulus packages to mitigate the impact of the crisis. But this should not dampen our enthusiasm to celebrate Christmas. Maybe not as merry as before but certainly a Blessed one. To all Fiscal Ad Spacers, A Blessed Christmas and a Hopefully Prosperous New Year!

Guidelines on Extra Cash Gift for LGUs

For LGUs which have not yet secured a copy of Local Budget Memorandum No. 58 on the grant of extra cash gift/additional benefits, here's a scanned copy of the issuance. To download, right click the image and save in your desktop. A clear copy can be downloaded from this site

Merry Christmas!

ALBO 6 hold 2008 Year-end Seminar in Capiz

The Association of Local Budget Officers in Region VI (ALBO VI) will hold its traditional year-end conference-seminar on December 3-5, 2008 in San Antonio Resort, Baybay, Roxas City, Capiz. Hosting this year's culminating activity which coincides with the province "Halaran Festival", is the Capiz Municipal Budget Officers' Association (CAMBO).

DBM's Asst. Secretary Eduardo P. Opida will deliver the keynote address during the Opening Program in the afternoon of December 3. Asec. Opida will also provide the participants comprising of local budget officers and their staff from the different LGUs of Region VI - an update on the 2009 Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), the proposed Modified Compensation and Position Classification or SSL 3, and other budget policies and issuances. Other topics to be discussed are: "Public Accountability", "Anti-Red Tape Law", and "GPRA Updates". Details of the Program can be viewed from this site.

LGUs' IRA for April and onwards at the same level as in the 1st quarter.

The DBM has issued Local Budget Memorandum No. 56 informing LGUs that pending presidential proclamation of the 2007 population census, and the submission by the DENR of the updated consolidated master list of land area, the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of LGUs will be computed based on the existing official data namely, the 2000 population census and the 2001 land area.

Thus, LGUs will expect no adjustment in the IRA shares to be released for the month of April and thereafter.

As of this writing however, the President has issued Proclamation No. 1489, proclaiming as official the results of the 2007 Census of Population which placed the total population of the Philippines as of August 1, 2007 at 88,574,614.

With this development, the DBM may have to recompute the IRA figure based on the latest official population count of each and every province, city, municipality and barangay.

Additional benefits/Extra Cash Gift for LGUs

The long wait is over. The DBM has just issued Local Budget Memorandum No. 54 authorizing the grant of additional benefits cum extra cash gift to LGU personnel. The LBM does not specify minimum or maximum amount but that it is charged to savings and subject to PS cap.

Sorry, folks our site is down so I have to post the LBM here. Just right click the image below and save in your PC or download a copy from the DBM CO site. Merry Christmas!

Guidelines on Performance bonus

For the benefit of the NGAs, a copy of Budget Circular No. 2007-4, the Guidelines on the Grant of P10,000 Performance Bonus (PerB) can be downloaded here.

Sex and politics do not make Filipinos happy!

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has recently unveiled the results of the Philippines Happiness Index (HPI). The NSCB study is a local version of the Happy Planet Index launched in 2006 by the New Economics Foundation based in Great Britain where the Philippines ranked 17th among 178 countries surveyed.

The local HPI as published in the NSCB website qualifies that "In the formulation of the Philippine Happiness Index (PHI), we were guided by the following premises: economic progress and happiness are not synonymous, Philippine progress should capture the happiness of the (individual) Filipinos, the PHI should not be normative and the PHI should recognize individual differences in terms of the sources or domains of happiness and the importance attached to each domain.

Here goes the statistics. The study ranks Family with an index of 88.46; followed by friends (83.57); religious/spiritual work (79.81); love life (79.37); and health (78.02) - as the top five sources or domain of happiness of Filipinos. Surprisingly sex life only ranks 7th with an index of 72.57, while politics is at the bottom with 25.49. Is this proof that people are fed up with politicians?

Other findings. The study also showed that (a) pinoys are happier with domains within their control; (b) six (6) out of ten (10) believe that progress is synonymous with happiness; (c) women are happier than men; and (d) happiness rises with income.