CHIZ: EXPECT MAJOR CHANGES TO 2015 BUDGET IN PLENARY DEBATES

The Senate begins on Tuesday floor debates on the P2.6 trillion national budget for 2015, with the spending bill's chief sponsor vowing to "make substantial improvements" on the House-approved Palace proposal.

"If you're asking me if the amendments we're going to introduce are cosmetic, the answer is no," said Senator Chiz Escudero, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance. "What we'll do is reduce overhead, increase funding for frontline services, put money on programs which have been overlooked."

By Escudero's estimate, about P91.82 billion will be affected through changes in funding levels or in the provisions governing their use to ensure there will be substantial allocations for education, health, nutrition, and rehabilitation and reconstruction.

"None of this will be pork in whatever name or form. There will be no earmarks sporting new titles," Escudero stressed.

The senator explained a careful and thorough scrutiny of lump sums under next year's spending package gave the committee some "budget space" to realign funds and identify programs which allocations can be put to good use elsewhere.

He assured though that "there will be no cuts that hurt" in the budget of government offices facing funding adjustments, saying most realignments will be done within the agency.

Escudero added that the revisions the Senate will propose will redound to the greater good and result in a better budget and ensure that it is compliant with the Supreme Court rulings on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP).

"Remember this is a post-DAP, post-PDAF budget so the Palace should welcome efforts to validate if the provisions indeed follow the jurisprudence laid down by the High Court," Escudero said.

The National Expenditure Program amounts to P2.6 trillion, about 15 percent higher than this year's budget, an outlay equivalent to18.4 percent of the 2015 GDP.

By sector, social services get the biggest share with P967.9 billion, followed by economic services, P700.2 billion; general public services, P423.1 billion; debt burden, P399.4 billion; and defense, P115.5 billion.

By recipient agency, DepEd leads the top 10 with P365.1 billion; DPWH, P300.5 billion; DND, P144 billion; DILG, P141.4; DSWD , P109 billion; DOH, P102.2 billion; DA (including budgetary support to NFA, PCA and NIA), P88.8 billion; DOTC, P59 billion; DENR, P21.3 billion; and DOST, P19.4 billion.

By expenditure type, Personal Services (PS) is allocated P761 billion; Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), P935 billion; Financial Expenses, P375 billion; and Capital Outlays (CO), P534 billion.