Baguilat warns vs scrapping Bottom Up Budget program

By Aiza Namingit 

LAGAWE, Ifugao -- Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat has urged Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to hold off on his plan to altogether scrap the Bottom Up Budgeting program and instead subject it to a thorough review as it has significantly benefited rural communities in the Philippines.

“I would like to appeal to President Duterte and Secretary Diokno to not scrap the program. It would be more prudent to review its successes and failure and see how it can be improved,” said Baguilat, a member of the Liberal Party.

He said that the BUB program put in place by the Aquino administration was “exemplary” because of its approach to local planning.

Through the program, civil society organizations as well as community leaders and elected local government officials worked together to identify anti-poverty programs that would then be included in the national budget.

This program not only helped make sure that the projects will indeed help the community, it also improved community relations and strengthened collaboration among different sectors.

 “Before the BUB program was put in place, it was just the local politicians who did the planning of local budgets. Now the CSOs and other sectors have a voice in deciding what poverty alleviation programs will get priority,” Baguilat said.

“In Ifugao, the leaders were not from the same political party. The mayors belonged to different groups but they and their communities and stakeholders were all beneficiaries of the BUB program. That is why it will be a shame if the BUB program will be scrapped just like that,” he added.

Baguilat shared the sentiment expressed by the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), the country’s largest group of NGOs, which also requested Secretary Diokno to reconsider his decision to stop the BUB program.

“Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) enabled local civil society organizations (CSOs) and local government officials to jointly identify priority anti-poverty projects which would then be included in the budget of the national government agencies.  BUB is important because it promoted people’s participation and LGU-CSO partnerships, and allowed those on the ground in the fight against poverty to input into the national government budgeting process”, explained SixtoDonatoMacasaet, Executive Director of CODE-NGO, in the statement.

Under the BUB, each municipality and city is allocated at least P15 million a year for priority anti-poverty projects in their area.  These projects are identified by a Local Poverty Reduction Action Team (LPRAT), half of the members of which comes from local government officials and the other half comes from local CSOs. 

The local CSOs are elected by an annual assembly of CSOs active in the municipality/city.

Baguilat said that with the institutionalization or strengthening of the BUB, the local communities would even be better prepared for a federal government, which is one of the thrusts of the Duterte administration.