25/09/2023
STATEMENT
25 September 2023
MARCOS JR’s 2024 NATIONAL BUDGET:
Funding corruption, state terrorism and debt servicing while depriving Filipinos of social welfare, aid and decent living
There is a saying that your budget defines your priorities. And indeed it will.
Looking at the 2024 national budget of the Marcos Jr. administration, it is obvious that his administration’s priorities are for corruption, state terrorism and debt servicing while denying adequate budget, and in some cases even cutting the budget, on social services like health, education, housing as well as other government programs that are vital for the people’s social and economic development.
Funding corruption
Topping the list is the P2.398 trillion special purpose fund (SPF) which according to House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. France Castro might be the “largest presidential pork barrel in Philippine history” if not properly scrutinized and if approved by congress.
Next is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with a whooping P822.2 billion allocation. This of course is where kickbacks and “under the table” transactions are rampant. The Marcos Jr. administration allocated more money on infrastructure projects presumably as payback to his cronies and political patrons as infrastructure projects are the most lucrative in terms of corruption.
Add to this the highly questionable Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) amounting to P5.28 billion. Of the total CIF budget, P4.61 billion goes to the Office of the President while P650 million goes to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, both of which is under Vice President Sara Duterte. Some P2.57 billion of CIF goes to civilian agencies. Abuse of confidential and intelligence funds is evident in all of government being non-transparent and are exempted from the standard procedures by the Commission on Audit.
Simply said, the allocated CIF could just be put into more worthwhile use to improve social services such as health, education and public housing. The President’s and Vice President’s CIFs alone can be used to build more classrooms, purchase school equipment and materials for school children, or on higher subsidies for state colleges and universities that ironically got a P6.15 billion budget cut for 2024.
Financing state terrorism
Another huge chunk of the budget goes to the defence sector which also took a raise from last year’s budget. A staggering P430.1 billion was allocated for the combined budget of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) including the Philippine National Police (PNP) and of the Department of National Defence (DND), up by P50.3 billion from last year’s budget.
This includes a 30% increase in the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the notorious agency known for red-tagging and terrorist-tagging people’s rights including social activists lawyers, Church people, trade unionists, youth, and environmental defenders resulting to rampant violation on human rights and sometimes even murder of red-tagged activists.
Take for example the case of Jhed Tamano (22 yo) and Jonila Castro (21 yo), two environmental activists who were forcibly disappeared weeks earlier and was presented in a press conference few days ago as “rebel surrenderees” by the NTF-ELCAC and the AFP. In an unexpected turn of events, the two environmental activists bravely confirmed that they were in fact abducted, intimidated, and threatened by the military.
This incident further strengthen what many local and international rights and environmental groups are claiming – that the military and state agents are responsible for the disappearances and extrajudicial killings of activists.
Add to this the assignment of police attaches in various Philippine diplomatic posts overseas to conduct surveillance and monitoring of movements of known Filipino migrant rights defenders and you have a complete recipe for state terrorism locally and overseas.
Paying debts that went to corruption
As if siphoning the budget away from services and towards fattening the pockets of state bureaucrats is not enough, the Marcos Jr’s administration is continuing the “tradition” of previous administrations of automatically allocating a huge amount of the national budget to pay the country’s debts now amounting to P14.5 trillion (US$255.6 billion). This includes the billions of dollars that went to corruption including the estimated US$10 billion that the former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. amassed during his more that 20 years in power. For the 2024 budget, P670.5 billion was allotted for this purpose.
Budget for greed and fascism
Bongbong Marcos’ “Bagong Pilipinas” approach represents greed and fascism. Heightened allocation for defense and cutting the budgets for health, education, labor and employment, agriculture, social welfare, and human rights. Budget cuts on social services will further aggravate the plight of the poor Filipino people who are already reeling from skyrocketing inflation. The electoral promises for cheap food, fuel, utility bills have all gone up in smoke. Every commodity is riddled with value added tax that the hard-earned peso of the poor Filipino cannot cope up with while the rich get away with their ballooning wealth tax cuts.
As for migrant workers like us, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW)’s decreased budget leaves the department’s inability to hire additional staff let alone cater to migrant workers’ ever increasing demand for welfare support and assistance. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)’s slight increase in budget is nothing but a dash of salt considering the magnitude of Filipino migrant workers globally and it’s P1.2 billion budget, is only a meagre for the protection of our rights and promotion of our welfare. And the fact that the OWWA fund is derived from the membership of every Filipino migrant worker, the government is practically having a free ride.
Indeed the scenario during the martial law period is being replayed and revived by no other than the son of the dictator himself believing that all is well during the golden era of his late father. The only difference between then and now is that poverty, human rights abuses, corruption, acquiescence to foreign power, and abandonment of services and protection to Filipino migrant workers has intensified.
The country’s budget should address the needs of the majority of the Filipino people. A budget that genuinely provides social welfare and protection and decent living for all, restore protection for rice farmers and increase production subsidies. A national budget that promotes genuine development by making national industrialization and genuine land reform as it’s cornerstone for economic policy, a progressive taxation that taxes the rich and not the poor, promoting environmentally-friendly and commuter-centric public transportation system and a review of all “free trade” deals toward amending or exiting lopsided ones if necessary.
The Marcos Jr. administration proudly announced the approval of the P5.768 Trillion 2024 budget saying “The dawn of a new Philippines - Ang Bagong Pilipinas has arrived. Our journey has just begun, We will march on – one nation, one people building a better future together,”.
We have heard the same rhetoric during the Martial Law period where people lived in fear, in poverty, and unemployment. Counting one year into his administration, the former dictator’s son’s wishful “Bagong Pilipinas” already delivers the Philippines into the top 5 among Asian countries: highest inflation in Asia, second highest unemployment, third slowest economy to recover and third worst poverty incidence.
With the current national budget in place, the Philippines is heading for the worst and not for a “better future”. # #
