MANILA — Malacañang said Tuesday that the practice of under-spending is a thing of the past, citing the report of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which showed that national government agencies used 98 percent of their budget allocations in the first quarter of 2018.
“The Department of Budget and Management reported that 98 percent or (PHP)606.33 billion out of (PHP)618 billion of the national government budget allocations were utilized by the government agencies in the first quarter of 2018,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during a Palace briefing.
Roque said data from the DBM also showed that this year’s utilization rate is higher than the 93 percent recorded in the same period of 2017, with PHP453.52 billion out of the released budget of PHP485.72 billion.
He said that the departments of agriculture, energy, foreign affairs, interior and local government, public works and highways, and trade were among those recorded to have 100 percent utilization rate for the period.
“Hindi na kinakailangan ng (There’s no longer a need for) DAP,” Roque said, referring to the Disbursement Acceleration Program, a reform intervention to speed up public spending and to boost economic growth.
The DAP was introduced during the Aquino administration to support high-impact and priority programs and projects using savings and unprogrammed funds.
Meanwhile, Roque welcomed the Philippines’ landing the 12th spot in the list of the most preferred investment destinations of Japanese companies, according to the latest survey of the Japan External Trade Organization.
He said that Japan was the Philippines’ largest trading partner in 2017, with approved foreign investments registering at PHP32 billion, an 18.2 percent increase from 2016.
”This reflects the confidence of the Japanese government and business in the economic policies and political stability under the leadership of PRRD (President Rodrigo R. Duterte),” Roque said. (PNA)
