MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte and his Cabinet members approved the P4.1-trillion proposed 2020 national budget during a Cabinet meeting on Monday at the Palace.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo on Tuesday said the proposed budget was ready for submission to the Senate and the House of Representatives for scrutiny.
“We wish to inform the public that President Rodrigo Duterte, together with the members of the Cabinet, approved tonight the P4.1-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2020,” Panelo said.
He added the budget proposal “is designed to respond to the needs of the majority of our countrymen longing” with education, public works, transportation, and health getting the highest budgetary allocations.
“We assure everyone that our people’s money, with education receiving the biggest slice of the budget, followed by public works, transportation, and health, will be spent wisely to reach a state of vibrant economy that will be felt by the citizenry,” Panelo said.
He added that the proposed budget was 12-percent higher than the P3.66-trillion approved for 2019 and the spending program was equivalent to 19.4-percent of the gross domestic product.
Among the priority programs under the 2020 budget were infrastructure development and the implementation of new and critical government programs and policies such as the Universal Health Care Act, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Rice Tariffication Act, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programs Act, and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Act.
Other priority programs to be funded under next year’s appropriations include the K-12 program, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the Unconditional Cash Transfer Program, the Risk Resiliency Program, and the Coastal Resource Management Program.
Last year, Duterte transmitted the 2019 budget to the Congress on the day he delivered his third State of the Nation Address but its ratification was delayed until earlier this year./PN
