By Iris C. Gonzales The Philippine Star


MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration has allocated P799.6 billion of the proposed 2012 national budget for the different regions across the country, Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday.

The budget is 28.7 percent more than the P621.2-billion regionalized budget in 2011.

“About 44 percent of the proposed 2012 budget, versus 37.5 percent in 2011, has been allocated for the regions,” Abad said.

He said that the higher budget for the regions is among the Aquino administration’s ways to ensure that National Government spending goes to the intended beneficiaries.

Of the budget, the share of Visayas and Mindanao has increased by 31.2 percent to P165.3 billion and by 32.8 percent to 219.1 billion, respectively.

Luzon will get the largest share of P415.1 billion, but by a narrower growth rate of P25.7 billion.

Moreover, Abad said that the poorer regions in the Visayas and Mindanao registered the highest budgetary increases.

This is 39.4 percent in Western Mindanao, 38.7 percent for Eastern Visayas, 37.9 percent in Caraga, 36.9 percent in Soccsksargen, 34.6 percent for Southern Mindanao, 32.5 percent in Central Visayas and 31.7 percent in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Meanwhile, the non-regionalized portion of the budget-including budgetary requirements for central offices and centrally-managed lump-sum funds would decrease by 23.4 percent to P1.016 trillion in 2012 from P1.327 trillion in 2011.

Earlier, Abad said that P150.5 billion in lump-sum funds have been fleshed-out into specific projects or into regional and sub-regional distributions in the proposed budget for 2012.