Phl eyes 4% budget increase

With an eye to a more focused spending, the Marcos administration would likely look for a measly 4-percent increase in next year’s budget, Senator Sonny Angara, head of the Senate Committee on Finance said Thursday.

“It’s very hard to triple a budget because the proposed 2023 budget, from what I’m hearing from the economic managers, is only 4 percent higher than the 2022 budget, that’s a very small increase compared to previous years,” he told a television interview.

“But perhaps you’ll see more focused spending because the President wants to do so many things so the departments have to take their cue and focus on what the President mentioned in his SoNA (State of the Nation Address).”

He added, “That’s probably why the President started his SoNA with a budget responsibility call... precisely so we can focus on all these issues.”

Asked where government can get the budget for the additional hospitals and rural health units that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. mentioned in his first SoNA, Angara said there are some P10 billion to P20 billion “health facility enhancement fund” every year.

Some local governments are capable of funding the improvement of their local hospitals, he added.

“Now there’s a new development in local government finance which is the Mandanas doctrine which gives more resources to the health personnel... We can be creative on how we fund the healthcare system,” he said.

“Some of the cities are also very healthy, you also have PPP (public-private partnerships). It’s not only the national government who is only capable of spending for these things.”

The SoNA was the “perfect time” for Marcos to bring up tax reform, Angara said.

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“It’s the perfect time. He has an overwhelming mandate and political capital. Do it at your most popular,” he said.