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THE OFFICIAL E-NEWSLETTER OF THE PHILIPPINE INFORMATION AGENCY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.PIA.GOV.PH and the DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.DOST.GOV.PH
VOL. 2 | NO. 39 November 15-22, 2014
Budget, NAPC Secretaries visit Siquijor, talk about country’s gains by Rizalie Anding-Calibo SIQUIJOR, Dec 1 (PIA)—Budget Secretary Butch Abad and his family visited Siquijor recently with National Anti-Poverty Commission Secretary Joel Rocamora and talked about “unprecedented gains” the country has achieved, in two separate occasions here. In his talks during the welcome dinner hosted by the Liberal Party and another dinner on the second day by representative Marie Anne Pernes, Abad thanked the people of Siquijor for the support they give to the present leadership. “You made that decision in an unprecedented way to elect a leadership that will care for you and for our country especially the poor,” said Abad. He said that because of the people’s support and President Aquino’s good management, “we have made unprecedented improvements in the way we govern our country.” He cited the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program which when they started in 2010, had only 800,000 household beneficiaries with a budget of P10 billion. This year, he reported, the budget is raised six times higher to P64 billion covering some 4.4 million families. Budget for education sector has also increased from P225 billion in 2010 to P450 billion in 2015 so that the 66,000 classrooms gap and teachers were closed at the end of 2013, he added. Health sector budget has also increased three times higher from P30 billion in 2010 to P90.5 billion next year with Philhealth getting P35.5 billion to cover some 50.7 million poor people. There will be no more charity wards in hospitals while district, provincial hospitals and even rural health centers will become viable, Abad said.
Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad in one of his talks at Congresswoman Marie Anne Pernes’ residence in Nonoc, Larena, Siquijor.
Infrastructure budget has also increased from P165 billion in 2010 to P600 billion in 2016 so that in 2016, all roads should have been rehabilitated and paved, he said. Abad assured the LGUs that in 2016 budget will be allocated for provincial roads citing the bottomup budgeting (BUB) that the administration has launched as a way of getting the local government units (LGUs) and the communities involved and improve their capacity to undertake more complicated projects. He said that the increased government spending on projects is only made following vigorous anti corruption campaigns made during the initial period. As a result, the administration has increased spending in 2012 starting
with Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that enabled the economy to grow by 6.8% and by 7.2% in 2013, Abad noted. All these is also attributed to the increase in tax collections that increased by 50% in three years from P1 trillion in 2010 to P1.5 trillion last year. He said investors and investment analyst have seen that this country will continue to lead the growth in the region through President Aquino’s leadership. With it, he said, collection of taxes will increase and the local governments Internal revenue Allotment (IRA) will also increase. The room for improvement is huge. If we continue helping each other there is so much that this country and we as a people can do, he said. (mbcn/RAC/PIA7-Siquijor)