BUDGET Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Monday said he has “killed” the Bottom-up-Budgeting (BUB) program that was being used by the previous administration as a political tool, but the Duterte administration has increased its allocation for local government units from this year’s P25 billion to P65.8 billion next year.
“I killed the BUB, all right?” Diokno told House reporters during the turnover of the P3.35-trillion national budget to Congress.
Asked if the Duterte administration didn’t simply rename the program, Diokno said: “There is no more BUB in the budget.”
Diokno cited the example of a small island of Camiguin under former congressman Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, a party mate of former President Benigno Aquino III in the Liberal Party, which was allotted P600 million in BUB funds.
Romualdo is now governor of Camiguin while his brother Xavier Javier was elected congressman representing the lone district.
“Because when we came in, I was surprised…P600 million for Camiguin. Fantastic! That might be enough to sink Camiguin, right?” he said in Filipino. “So, apparently, there’s no rhyme or reason in the allocation of resources.”
Duterte lost heavily in Camiguin during the May elections, one of the three provinces in Mindanao where he lost big to LP’s Manuel Roxas II.
Diokno also said the budget for the previous administration’s controversial Conditional Cash Transfer or CCT program was increased from P65 billion to P78.7 billion, of which amount some P23.4 billion will go to a rice subsidy for 3 million eligible households.
But Diokno said killing the BUB did not mean the national government would no longer help municipalities in the provinces.
In his budget message to Congress, President Rodrigo Duterte said total allocations to LGUs will reach P552.7 billion next year, an increase of 14.2 percent from their allocation this year.
Of the P552.7 billion, Duterte said, some P486.9 billion is for the automatically appropriated Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA and the rest of the P65.8 billion would come as financial assistance in terms of projects.
The President said the LGUs would also be accorded “conditional grants” for the rehabilitation of certain provincial roads.
“The funding support for the rehabilitation of provincial roads will be based on two factors: first, those which are most in need, and second, those which meet the high standards of transparency, financial stewardship, and citizens’ participation,” the President said.