By IBON FOUNDATION
Posted by (Bulatlat.com)
Government’s skewed spending priorities can be seen in the proposed P1.54-trillion national budget for 2010, which further reveals how it gives importance to debt payments over spending for social services.
The single item that eats up the bulk of the proposed P1.54-trillion national budget for 2010 is still debt servicing, bumping off spending for social, economic and public services.
Even as the proposed budget sees a nominal increase in social services, at 6.1 percent from 2009, the biggest increase in allocation remains in debt interest payments at 35 percent and in net lending at 23 percent.
This does not include the allocation for principal payments which will automatically be allocated P405 billion in 2010.
The share of defense as a single item also increased to 13.2 percent. This is higher than budget increases in education (5.8 percent) and health (which decreased by 8 percent).
On the other hand, budget shares for economic services (communications, transport, subsidy to LGUs, etc) decreased by 6.6 percent, and general public service increased slightly at 4.8 percent.
While government gives low priority for people’s social security and welfare, Filipinos continue to pay for debts and pay higher and regressive taxes that do not come back to them in the form of sufficient social services. (Posted by Bulatlat)
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