Paggugol na Matuwid
Budgeting under the Aquino Administration began with the introduction of key reforms in public expenditure. Its first budget—the Reform Budget of 2011—carried the theme “Tungo sa Paggugol na Matuwid” to convey the administration’s desire to put public spending back on the right track towards prudence and effectiveness.
But what exactly does “Paggugol na Matuwid” mean? It means that each and every peso spent by government counts in empowering the people and in building a prosperous nation.
In this quest for “Paggugol na Matuwid,” the government will escalate the reforms it already began, towards ensuring that public spending leads to direct, immediate and substantial benefits for various marginalized sections of society: students deprived of free and quality basic education, patients urgently needing proper health care facilities in the countryside, farmers without access to effective irrigation and post-harvest facilities, and millions of other Filipinos who have been sinking in joblessness, poverty and hopelessness for so long.
Thus, the 2012 National Budget has been designed to be a Results-Focused Budget. This budget—the first that has been fully prepared and legislated, and will be fully implemented, under the Aquino Administration—has been crafted to veer public spending away from waste and irrelevance, and to focus it on key priorities in line with President Aquino’s Social Contract with the Filipino People. In other words, “Paggugol na Matuwid: Diretso sa Tao.”
The Aquino Administration intends to further define “Paggugol na Matuwid” throughout its term. But it can only succeed with the active and informed participation of the very citizens that the annual National Budgets seek to serve. With this, we in the Department of Budget and Management invite citizens to join us in this quest for “Paggugol na Matuwid.”
To learn more about the 2012 budget, click the following links below: