MANILA, Sep. 30—The Aquino administration’s Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB) Summit launched in Davao this week to highlight and track the progress of various BuB projects in the Mindanao Cluster, altogether amounting to P19.5 billion from 2013 to 2016.
The BuB summit which started on September 29 and will end on October 1, was attended by representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs), national government agencies (NGAs), and local government units (LGUs).
The Mindanao Cluster is composed of six administrative regions involved in the BuB program since the initiative was first established in 2013. The cluster is represented by Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao region, Davao region, SOCCSKSARGEN (Region 12), and CARAGA (Region 13). To date, this cluster has received a total budget allocation of P19.5 billion for 15,539 projects. These include projects proposed in the 2016 National Expenditure Program (NEP) amounting to P5.98 billion for 3,532 BuB projects.
“The BuB program was developed to give grassroots communities a greater voice and stake in the national budget process. For Mindanao, this program is crucial in delivering much-needed government services to far-flung communities. At the same time, BUB allows us to improve governance in vulnerable and risk-prone areas,” Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said.
He added that with the establishment of peace and the rule of law in Mindanao, the government trusts that prosperity will follow as Filipinos in Mindanao benefit from real and inclusive development through the said program.
Convened by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), the workshop is supported by the departments of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Budget and Management (DBM), Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
This event is preceded by other BuB summits recently held in Manila and Subic. The Davao workshop will focus on improving the BUB planning process and speeding up its implementation. At the same time, the workshop will provide a venue for discussions on how to enhance the partnerships between LGUs and CSOs, boost local government capacity to implement BuB programs, and consider appropriate ways to communicate the goals of BuB to the public.
“Through BuB, LGUs and CSOs can help identify poverty-reduction projects for implementation in their localities. More importantly, Filipinos in Mindanao are now part of the decision-making process for local projects that have an impact on their lives. BuB is really an exercise in citizen empowerment,” Abad said.
The BuB program in the 2015 current budget covers 1,590 municipalities and cities across the country, with a budget of P20.9 billion. For 2016, the Aquino Administration is pushing for a budget of P24.7 billion to support the implementation of more than 14,300 BUB projects nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is included in the Mindanao Cluster of the BuB program. However, the data set noted below does not include BuB projects in the ARMM. (DBM)
The following is the breakdown of the BUB budget allocation and number of projects for the Mindanao Cluster: