By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — The Philippine government exceeded by 2.6 percent its spending program target for the first three quarters of 2018, which made Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno more optimistic about hitting this year’s PHP3.364-trillion goal.
Data released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday showed that infrastructure spending boosted government expenditures in the first three quarters of the year to PHP2.49 trillion, some PHP62.6 billion higher than the PHP2.427 trillion programmed for the nine-month period.
Current operating expenditures account for the bulk of these disbursements at PHP1.78 trillion while capital outlays totaled PHP702.1 billion.
Among the items under the capital outlays, allocation for infrastructure and other capital outlays amounted to PHP570.8 billion, higher than the PHP532.6 billion-program.
Last year, total spending for these items amounted to PHP391.2 billion.
Diokno said they have addressed the underspending in the past by increasing allocations, not only for infrastructure projects but also social programs in health, education, and poverty-reduction.
He said they front-loaded spending in the first three quarters of the year since these are the best quarters to implement the programs, as the last quarter is cyclically lean.
The budget chief said he is also confident that amid the over-programmed spending as of end-September this year, the government will not exceed the expenditure program and increase the budget deficit beyond the 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) ceiling set for this year.
“Our collections are pretty robust,” he said, pointing out that the government calibrates spending to ensure that it remains within program.
As of end-September, total revenues rose 17 percent year-on-year to PHP2.111 trillion from year-ago’s PHP1.801 trillion. It is also higher by 4 percent compared to the PHP2.030 trillion goal for the period.
Meanwhile, Diokno said the government’s massive infrastructure program, “Build, Build, Build”, got a boost with the signing of the agreement with the Chinese government for the financing of the 639-km. Philippine National Railway (PNR) South Long-Haul Project that will run from Manila to Legazpi.
He said the project was awarded to China Railway Design Corp./Guanzhou Wanan (CRDC-WACC).
Relatively, the government has signed an agreement with the consortium that will construct the Metro Manila Subway Project, which will be partly funded by a 40-year loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Diokno said the winning bidder is OCGlobal, which was formed by six Japanese firms — Oriental Consultants Global Co. Ltd., Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd., Katahira & Engineers International, Pacific Consultants Co. Ltd., Tonichi Engineering Consultants, Inc., and Metro Development Co. Ltd.
The project will be funded using three currencies pooled by these proponents and these include 7,965 billion Japanese yen, USD79.729 million, and PHP3.578 billion or a total of PHP11 billion.
