ILOILO City – Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto seeks to empower local government units (LGUs) down to the barangays through his proposed “Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (BRAVE)” program.
BRAVE is a bottom-up budgeting scheme which aims to spur development in the countryside. It is the communities themselves that identify their needs through their Barangay Development Councils, said Sotto in a virtual press briefer with Western Visayas media on Saturday.
According to the vice presidential candidate, under the BRAVE program local projects like the long overdue Iloilo-Guimaras Bridge, roads and the like can be directly identified for budgeting by the barangays.
“Kung ang gagawin natin bottom-up budgeting na tinatawag, zero ang umpisa at iaakyat mo, kung ano ang pangangailangan, maso-solve natin yan, kagaya ng mga tulay na yan,” said Sotto.
Sotto, running mate of presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson, said the BRAVE program is the reverse of the current system wherein the national government, particularly the executive department, puts a budget ceiling for every national government agencies under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Under the current scheme, Sotto said, agencies just list projects to reach the ceiling even if the projects are not even a need.
“Ang nangyayari ngayon sa baba, may disconnect. Eh dapat dyan nanggagaling sa baba yan. Imbes na ganun, ang programa namin, dapat mag umpisa sa barangay. Through the Barangay Development Council, ano ang kailangan niyo? Andun na yung mga tulay, kalsada – aakyat ngayon yan sa Municipal Development t Council. Alam nila kung ano pangangailangan ng munisipyo. Then aakyat sa district. Kaya yung mga congressmen pwede na sila doon sa mga projects nila na kailangan. Katulad sa sinasabi natin sa Guimaras (and) Iloilo na mga pangangailangan, papasok mo na yun doon,” Sotto explained.
Sotto added that from there, it will be forwarded to the National Development Council that in return will endorse the NEP, through Department of Budget and Management ad Department of Finance, for the approval of President before it will be submitted to the Congress.
Sotto added that their program will also stop the so-called culture of mendicancy of local government units.
“Walang ginawa kundi manghingi sa national government. Mali. We have to reverse that. Our 42 years of experience in the legislation tells us that,” said Sotto./PN
