Natural disaster mitigation will receive an “unprecedented” increase in funding in next year’s budget to facilitate measures to help the country cope with the effects of global warming, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad told Inquirer.net on Monday.
Abad, however, refused to give further details.
According to the report, the proposal for the 2015 national budget, which is expected to reach P2.6 trillion, will be discussed by Cabinet officials and submitted to President Aquino on July 10 and will be presented to Congress on July 29.
Next year’s budget will be higher by 15.1 percent over this year’s P2.26 trillion.
Abad said support for priority areas such as infrastructure, healthcare and education would also be augmented.
Education, as usual, will get the biggest chunk of the budget for 2015. This is to support that the increasing number of students every year and the ongoing shift to the K-12 basic education structure that demands more money to be spent on books, school supplies, and additional classrooms, Abad told the Inquirer.
Infrastructure will also get a sizable budget boost in 2015. Abad noted that the government would stick to its commitment to increase spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product or the equivalent of P578 billion.
Department of Public Works and Highways, which has a budget of P165.5 billion this year, will biggest beneficiary of the increase in spending next year. Other infrastructure agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, which has a budget of P21.4 billion, will also receive a higher budget allocation.
