By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The 2025 national budget is a subject of a lot of brickbats from so many critics including a former Senate President, and former government officials.
When I tried to look at the said budget, I was tempted to say that it is anti-poor, it is pro politicians, it is almost anti-education, and rife with possibilities of corruption. Never mind if it is supposed to be in consonance to the theme: “Agenda for Prosperity: Fulfilling the Needs and Aspirations of the Filipino People”
In fact, Dr. Cielo Magna, a former undersecretary of DBM, calls it the most corrupt budget in Philippine history. Am not sure about this, but it may just be so. Former SP Franklin Drilon, appear to have substantiated this when he said the DPWH budget was unnecessarily increased by cutting the proposed budget of the Education sector, the 4 Ps program, and the Philhealth subsidy
For his part former senator Ping Lacson pointed out that according to the 1987 constitution, Education should have the highest allocation. In the 2025 budget, it is DPWH that received the highest amount. Also, the allocations for the House of Reps and the Senate were increased substantially, to the tune of 18.8B and 1B pesos respectively.
That only means, that if there are new road construction or major repairs, including flood management program, started just before the actual ban on such projects in relation to the 2025 mid-term elections, it is mainly due to the hedging of re-electionist congressmen or senators.
Why? According to my friend, it is to help finance their re-election bids, what else. We know already how it is.
The top 4 priority sectors in the budget are supposedly Education, Public Works, Health (including Philhealth) , and DA and DAR. This does not include though the additional budget given to the DPWH plus other convergence allocations for the department.
Clearly the budget favors politicians to the detriment of human and social development promotion and even the agriculture and agrarian reform sector.
As to the spending priorities, the modernization of agriculture and agribus was ranked 4th with the following allocations: irrigation services, 24.6B; RCEP, 10B; and Agric Credit Program, 2.8B. These allocations are even lower than the previous budget.
The national rice program is given 31.4B- the bulk of which appear to be geared for rice importation., Given the report of DA Asec Arnel De Mesa. Rainy mga paba days continue to be the order of the day, for a favored few.
When can we halt the avarice! Abangan ang mga pagbabago sa budget, kung meron man.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERY ONE.
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