The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it has submitted yesterday the proposed P5.024 trillion 2022 national expenditure program (NEP) to Congress for scrutiny and approval.
The DBM said in a statement the proposed amount for 2022 is equivalent to 22.8 percent of gross domestic product and is higher by 11.5 percent than the 2021 national budget of P4.506 trillion.
Despite talks of unreleased salaries and allowances of healthcare workers, DBM said bulk of the 2022 budget, in the amount of P1.456 trillion or with a share of 29 percent, will go to personnel services expenditures to cover the hiring of healthcare workers and teaching personnel, the implementation of the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law V and the requirements of the 2018 military and uniformed personnel pension arrears, among others.
Capital outlays are pegged at P939.8 billion while maintenance and other operating expenditures will reach P777.9 billion next year.
Debt burden is expected to amount to P541.3 billion, which corners 10.8 percent of the 2022 NEP and is lower by 3.4 percent year-on-year.
The support to government-owned and -controlled corporations, composed of national government subsidies and equity, sums up to P178 billion while tax expenditures remain the same with this year’s level at P14.5 billion.
Finally, the allocation to local government units (LGUs) will amount to P1.116 trillion.
This includes the P959 billion national tax allotment share of LGUs, consistent with the Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia case.
Meanwhile, the DBM said the social services sector will continue to receive the biggest chunk of the 2022 NEP with P1.922 trillion, which is higher by 15.2 percent compared to this year’s national budget.
This will fund health-related services such as the continued implementation of the Universal Health Care Act, purchase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and others.
Education-related programs, including the implementation of the universal access to quality tertiary education, will also be prioritized.
This is followed by the economic services sector which will receive P1.474 trillion or 29.3 percent of the proposed budget.
This inched up by 11.4 percent compared to the 2021 budget and will largely support flagship projects under the Build, Build, Build program, the DBM said.
The general public services sector is allocated with P862.7 billion (17.2 percent), the debt burden with P541.3 billion (10.8 percent) and the defense sector with P224.4 billion (4.5 percent).
The education sector covering the Department of Education, state universities and colleges and the Commission on Higher Education will receive the highest allocation with P773.6 billion, higher by P21.9 billion or 2.9 percent compared to its share from the 2021 budget.
This is followed by the Department of Public Works and Highways with P686.1 billion, Department of the Interior and Local Government with P250.4 billion, Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. with P242 billion, Department of National Defense with P222 billion, Department of Social Welfare and Development with P191.4 billion, Department of Transportation with P151.3 billion, Department of Agriculture and National Irrigation Authority with P103.5 billion, the Judiciary with P45 billion, and the Department of Labor and Employment with P44.9 billion.
The DBM also said the government will continuously support the implementation of the National Health Insurance Program, with a budgetary support of P80 billion, to subsidize the health insurance premium of 13.2 million indigent families and 7.3 million senior citizens.
To combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the budget agency said the intensified rollout of the Prevention, Detection, Isolation, Treatment and Reintegration strategy will be prioritized through the procurement of 758,700 complete sets of PPE (P819 million) and 11 million GeneXpert cartridges (P5.1 billion).
Moreover, P17 billion will also be allotted for the continuous hiring and deployment of health service professionals through the Human Resources for Health Program.
To further strengthen the capacity of the healthcare sector and improve medical infrastructure, P19.6 billion is allocated for the construction and upgrading of health facilities and purchase of medical equipment and ambulances under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program.
Of this amount, P1.4 billion will be used to cover the requirements for newly established government hospitals while P106 million will be set aside to ensure the efficient health facility referral system of the One Hospital Command Center.
The government will also continuously invest in medical research and development (R&D) by allocating P1.3 billion to support the COVID-19 R&D efforts of the Department of Science and Technology.
This includes P983 million allotted for the establishment of the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines and P140 million for the conduct of biosurveillance and immune-biosurveillance of COVID-19 variants under the Philippine Genomic Information and Resource Hub.
Finally, about P45.4 billion is provided under the proposed 2022 unprogrammed appropriations to cover the COVID-19 booster shots of 93.798 million fully-vaccinated Filipinos.
