Press Release
December 24, 2009

ANGARA RAISES 2010 BUDGET FOR SOCIAL, PUBLIC SERVICES, EDUC

Sen. Edgardo Angara increased the 2010 national budget for the education, health and social services, transportation and communications, agriculture and infrastructure sectors, calling on the government to continue providing quality basic services to the Filipinos despite the rush of the May polls.

"Despite overall improvement in the country's economic performance, many Filipinos are yet to enjoy many of the basic services due them. This budget increase highlights our response to such need to improve their daily living," stressed Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.

Among the departments to receive a significant increase in their budgets next year are DepEd, CHED and all state universities and colleges (P185.5 B); Land Reform (P20.8 B); the DOTC (P16.6 B); DSWD (P15.3 B); infrastructure (P126.9 B) and the Pension and Gratuity Fund (P80 B).

In addition, Angara also pumped in more funds for the Visayas-Mindanao initiatives on public school buildings (P73 M); the Cultural Village Project (P16 M); the UP-Cebu Graduate School (P50 M); and the promotion of regional opportunities for enterprise and livelihood development or PROPEL (P34 M).

"These are part of our strategies to stimulate local and national economies. If we do not provide our citizens good education, impartial land distribution, social welfare and pension systems, proper infrastructure and employment programs, we cannot expect them to cooperate--even at a grassroots level--in our efforts to continually improve our domestic economy," he warned. Angara himself has been urging Congress to enact laws that address issues for such sectors.

As the longest-serving post-EDSA senator, he has championed some of the country's milestone legislations that have greatly improved the lives of Filipinos across all sectors of the society. Among them are the Free High School Act, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), the PhilHealth Law, the National Heritage Act, the laws that created the TESDA and CHED, and the Senior Citizens Law.

He was quick to clarify that "we must not stop simply at the signing of our goals for the people into law. Rather, we should continuously upgrade them to address the evolving challenges that our people--especially the poor, the children and the marginalized--are facing. These increases in sectoral budgets are an important step towards meeting our regional and national goals for further development."

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