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Friday, March 29, 2024

New PH leader must rethink budget priorities – expert

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The challenge for the next administration after President Rodrigo Duterte’s is to rethink and recast the current set of priorities to one that would boost health systems, promote inclusive recovery, implement structural reforms, and re-establish participatory mechanisms to ensure transparency, a public finance expert said during an online forum organized by think tank Stratbase ADR Institute.

The current administration’s budget priorities are unduly pointed toward infrastructure spending even at the height of the pandemic, rendering it incapable of responding to the crisis and helping businesses recover from the slump, said Zy-za Nadine Suzara, executive director for iLEAD.

Suzara launched her special study, Rethinking Public Spending Priorities Towards an Inclusive Recovery, at the forum called “Impactful Governance Reforms for the Next Administration” held Thursday, April 28.

Suzara’s paper is part of the Stratbase ADR Institute’s (ADRI) series of 16 special studies on policy recommendations for the next government.

In this special studies series, experts laid down significant findings from studies and research, analyzed issues faced by the current administration, and gave recommendations for the next administration.

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“The public budget is really at the core of governance,” Suzara said. “In principle, it’s the clearest expression of any government’s development agenda.”

“What happened, however, was that while most departments experienced budget cuts or stagnation in the 2022 National Expenditure Program, the funding for infrastructure continued to dominate the government’s (already) limited fiscal space.”

“Apart from this, the proposed budget for less strategic and more patronage-driven infrastructure projects have increased astronomically,” Suzara said.

“The 2022 national budget reflects questionable trade-offs, and this took place in the final stretch of budget legislation. Basically, patronage politics really trumped people-centered economic recovery,” Suzara said.

“What we saw in the 2022 GAA are the following: a continued insistence on the ‘brute force approach’ to infrastructure, high allocations for ‘pork’ making it definitely an election budget, bloated unprogrammed appropriations leaving education, health and economic recovery programs without guaranteed funding, and a commanding share for military and law enforcement,” Suzara said.

“The philosophy seemed to be: Put as many infrastructures as we can into the national budget, never mind if we do not have allocations for economic aid or fiscal stimulus for businesses that closed down.”

A transparent and participatory budget process

Suzara emphasized the role of civil society in a people-centered budgeting process.

Many civil society organizations, she said, are clear about policy and political agenda. But advocacies can be implemented by government only if there are concomitant funding sources for them.

“That’s why it’s important to buttress that policy advocacy with a very specific technical advocacy when it comes to budget lobbying,” she said. “I think that is a very powerful way by which we can first demand transparency and accountability, and then push for a more inclusive democratic governance agenda.”

A checklist for the next leader

During the forum, Suzara outlined the recommendations she made in her special study.

“There should be a balance among infrastructure development, social protection, and human capital development. There should be support for workers, and some form of social protection still in the succeeding budgets,” she said.

She highlighted the need to address education, much affected by the pandemic, and public transportation that needs to be safe, humane, and inclusive.

The new administration should open spaces to allow civil society participation in the budget process as early as the budget preparation phase, she added.

Finally, it should also establish an online portal that provides comprehensive, timely and publicly available status reports on fund utilization and project implementation.

Stratbase ADRI President Professor Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit, in his remarks during the forum, underscored the importance of demanding transparency, accountability and integrity in government.

“We should shift the attention towards the governance and structural issues contributing to the prevalent and worsening impact of these national concerns that have echoed across different administrations,” he said.

He also underscored the need for a three-pronged governance, anchored on the collaboration of government, private sector, and civil society.

“The resulting effort should be and one that is people-centered, sustainable, and globally competitive,” he said.

Other speakers who also launched their special studies during the forum were Dr. Francisco “Kiko” Magno, Trustee & Program Convenor, Stratbase ADR Institute and Professor of Political Science, De La Salle University; Dr. Sherwin Ona, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Development Studies, De La Salle University-Manila; and Dr. Rizal Buendia, Philippine Country Expert, Global V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, and Stratbase ADR Institute Non-Resident Fellow.

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