Bulatlat

 

BY RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat
Volume VIII, No. 31, September 7-13, 2008

In her message titled Standing Firm in the Midst of Economic Challenges, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, “A number one priority of my Administration is services to uplift the lives of the poor. No other priority encapsulates so succinctly the commitments I have made since I assumed the Presidency.”

The message is addressed to members of the House of Representatives. Congress has started its deliberations Sept. 3 on the proposed P1.415-trillion ($30.22 billion at the Sept. 5 exchange rate of $1:P46.82) national budget for next year.

At first glance, the proposed budget shows increased allocations for education, health and other social services. A closer examination, however, would prove that these allotments are measly compared to debt payments.

In the same message, Arroyo said, “Debt service’s 21.4-percent share in the national budget next year shows a conspicuous continuous decline from 31.6 percent in 2005 and 23.2 percent in 2007, in accordance with our deficit reduction strategy. This means more resources can now be used for essential spending on investments on our human and capital resources.”

Arroyo was only referring to the interest payments pegged at P302.6 billion ($6.46 billion). If principal amortization would be computed, total debt service for next year is P681.5 billion ($1.46 billion) or 48.16 percent of the proposed national budget.

 

Presidential Decree No. 1177, issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos during martial law, allows automatic appropriation for debt service and other expenditure items. Allocation for the principal amortization of national government debt is not included in the proposed national budget.

Health

Based on the proposed budget, the Department of Health (DoH) will get P27.8 billion ($593.76 million). The proposal is 36.9 percent higher than this year’s allocation.

However, the amount is still measly. With the projected 92.2-million population next year, government health spending would only be P0.83 ($0.02) per person per day.

For next year, the proposed allocation for disease prevention and control is only P4.51 billion ($96.33 million) while P161.73 million ($3.45 million) is allotted for monitoring and surveillance of diseases and outbreaks.

Subsidies for indigent patients for confinement in specialty hospitals and for the use of specialized equipment is only P6 million ($128,150.36).

The 12 specialty government hospitals have a combined budget of only P3.23 billion ($68.99 million). These include the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Rizal Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Tondo Medical Center, Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, National Children's Hospital, National Center for Mental Health, Philippine Orthopedic Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), and Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Medical Center.

The RITM will receive no fund for capital outlay.

The Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Medical Center will get the lowest budget of P103.85 million ($2.21 million). The National Center for Mental Health will be allotted P517.94 million ($11.06 million).

The budget for the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for this year is P1.14 billion ($24.35 million), of which P878.56 million ($18.76 million) is allotted for personnel services and only P3 million ($64,075.18) for capital outlay.

Meanwhile, the Veterans Memorial Medical Center will receive P 742.40 million ($15.86 million) and the AFP Medical Center, P850.09 million ($18,156557).

In fact, the proposed health budget is lesser by P6.62 billion ($141.39 million) than the government’s counter-insurgency funds for next year, which amounts to P34.42 billion ($735.16 million).

Moreover, the health budget is less than half of the proposed budget for the Department of National Defense pegged at P56.4 billion ($1.2 billion).

The Arroyo government will also allocate some P3.3 billion ($70.48 million) next year for the National Health Insurance Program. The amount will be used to provide health insurance to 4.7 million indigent households.

The NHIP is the main instrument of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

Arroyo said there are 65 million Filipinos who have health insurance, including 15 million indigents.
However, in a study, the National Institute of Health maintained that the PhilHealth’s claim of coverage is overestimated by at least 20 percent.

The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) noted that the PhilHealth coverage bloated to 80 percent during the election period in 2007. In the past years, the coverage was only 61 percent.

nother study commissioned by the European Commission regarding PhilHealth coverage in Mindanao showed that only ten percent of the poor in Tawi-Tawi, 12 percent in Davao Oriental and 15 percent in Zamboanga del Norte and Maguindanao are covered by PhilHealth.

Education

The Department of Education (DepEd) will receive P167.9 billion ($3.59 billion) including P2 billion ($42.72 million) for construction of classrooms.

With the P2 billion budget, only 3,076 classrooms can be built. Arroyo said that each classroom costs P650,000 ($13,882.96).

In a statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) estimated that the DepEd needs to construct an additional 41,905 classrooms in order to attain a 1:45 classroom-to- student ratio.

Antonio Tinio, ACT chaiperson noted that at the elementary level, classroom shortages are concentrated in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon). At the secondary level, there are classroom shortages nationwide, but are most acutely felt in NCR, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, and Central and Western Visayas, he added.

The proposed budget will include P2.5 billion ($53.4 million) to fund the creation of 19,553 new teaching and non-teaching personnel.

ACT’s Tinio said, “To reduce class sizes to 40 students per class at the elementary level and 45 students per class at the secondary level, DepEd needs to hire 25,240 additional teachers.”

Tinio also criticized the ‘problematic’ computation of DepEd on the teacher-student ratios. "Teacher-pupil ratios don't take factors such as class size, teacher specialization from Grade 4 onwards, and teaching load into consideration. This leads to an absurd situation where the DepEd claims that there is now a surplus of teachers just because the teacher-pupil ratio stands at 1:35 for elementary and 1:39 for high schools," he said.

The budget for 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs) is only P22.57 billion ($482.06 million).

The University of the Philippines (UP) system will get P6.7 billion ($143.1 million), the biggest budget among SUCs. The UP has a population of more than 50,000. It is comprised of seven constituent universities located in 12 campuses throughout the country.

The Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), the largest university in terms of student population will only receive P663.64 million ($14.17 million). It has six campuses, two branches and ten extension campuses serving more than 52,000 students.

The Philippine Normal University (PNU), the country’s center for teacher education, will only get P282.32 million ($6.03 million). It has four campuses in the country.

Housing, social welfare

A meager P5.3 billion ($113.2 million) will be allotted for housing.

The P300 million will be allotted for the operational requirements of regulatory agencies such as the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).

The National Housing Authority (NHA) will get P3.5 billion ($74.75 million). Arroyo said it will be used to set up resettlement sites and build new housing units.

Meanwhile, even as the DSWD budget will increase by 116 percent, the bulk will go to donations and subsidies. These include Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program, P5 billion ($106.79 million); and, Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa feeding program, P1.58 billion ($33.75 million).

The Pantawid Pamilya program, Arroyo said, will provide cash grants to 321,000 poorest households.

Big chunks

The Arroyo government will invest P147.5 billion ($3.15 billion) for infrastructure. Of this amount, P83.9 billion will be used to build and maintain roads and bridges.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will receive P120 billion ($2.56 billion).

Critics, however, fear that the funds for infrastructure would be vulnerable to corruption. In many surveys, the DPWH is consistently perceived to be one of the most corrupt government agencies in the country.

Another controversial item in the proposed 2009 national budget is the allocation for confidential and intelligence expenses of different government offices amounting to P1.36 billion ($29.05 million).

The Office of the President will get the biggest intelligence fund worth P650 million ($13.88 million). The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) will get P270 million ($5.77 million) for the same purpose while the DND will receive P151.64 million ($3.24 million). These funds are not subject to government audit. Bulatlat