Mahal na Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.;

Sa mga kasamahan ko sa Gabinete—Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, at Tourism Secretary Ma. Christina Frasco;

League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) National President and La Paz, Abra Mayor JB Bernos, LMP Executive Director Andrea Loriaga, mga miyembro ng LMP National Executive Committee at National Secretariat;

At sa ating mga butihing kawani ng gobyerno, magandang araw po.

Ikinagagalak kong makita at makausap ang ating mga kasama mula sa ating mga local government units o LGUs, pati na rin ang ating mga katuwang mula sa iba’t ibang munisipalidad. Dito ako nagkakaroon ng pagkakataon na makita at higit na maunawaan ang sitwasyon ng ating mga LGUs na nagsisilbing frontliners natin sa usapan ng public health, climate change, digitalization, at iba pa.

Kaya naman po ang mensahe ko ngayong hapon ay iikot sa konsepto ng empathy—ang pakiki-isa sa ating kapwa tao—or the ability to put oneself in other people’s shoes and see the world from their eyes.

Sa ating pakiki-isa, kasama na rin po rito ang ating pakikiramay, pag-unawa, at pagmamalasakit sa kapwa.

Relating to this event’s theme, “Strengthening Municipal Capabilities Around Autonomy and Fostering Resiliency,” while we easily associate resilience with autonomy, let us remember that, as leaders in government, it is incumbent upon us to lead with empathy.

Embedding empathy in governance translates to policies that truly consider and respond to the needs of our localities.

Empathy enables us to connect with the people and understand their situation which in turn, will enable us to provide them with what they truly need. I believe that is the true essence of public service.

Empathetic governance will empower communities to advocate and work for their evolving collective interests, building strength and resilience. Through this, they can better address the adversities that they face and deliver policies that support public welfare, leading to their aspired autonomy.

With empathy for the needs of our people, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) prepared a national budget for economic transformation that is truly inclusive and sustainable— budget na tunay na dumaramay, nakaka-unawa, at nagmamalasakit sa mga Pilipino.

These expenditures, which put a premium on strengthening social protection, ensuring food security, and establishing livable communities, among others, also support the Administration’s 8-point Socioeconomic Agenda and will cater to the objectives under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023 to 2028.

Kasama sa mga istratehiyang nakalatag sa PDP ay ang mas matatag na pagtutulungan sa pagitan ng lokal at pambansang pamahalaan. Sapagkat hindi naman magiging tunay na “inclusive” ang ating kaunlaran kung wala ang ating lokal na pamahalaan.

Under the 2023 national budget, some Php 820.3 billion is automatically appropriated to LGUs as part of their National Tax Allotment. Thirty-four percent of this, equivalent to Php 278.9 billion, is allocated to more than a thousand municipalities.

We have also allotted Php 16.5 billion for the Local Government Support Fund. Under this, Php 9.16 billion is for financial assistance to Local Government Units, Php 1.0 billion for the Growth Equity Fund, and Php 6.34 billion as support to the Barangay Development Program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or the NTF-ELCAC.

Recognizing the plight of our brothers and sisters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as their government undergoes transition, we have appropriated Php 64.76 billion for their Annual Block Grant; Php 5.0 billion as Special Development Fund for the rebuilding, rehabilitation, and development of its conflict-affected communities; and Php 4.59 billion for their share in taxes, fees, and charges collected in the region.

Makaaasa rin po kayo na patuloy na susuporta ang DBM pagdating sa devolution ng functions at services ng ating LGUs alinsunod sa Mandanas-Garcia Supreme Court Ruling.

Kinikilala po natin ang mga limitasyon sa kasalukuyang kapasidad ng ating mga LGUs at nauunawaan po natin ang kanilang mga sentimyento ukol sa implementasyon ng full devolution. Kaya naman ipinanukala po natin kasama ng ating Secretary ng DILG, ng NEDA o National Economic and Development Authority, at ng ating Secretary of Finance na i-extend hanggang 2027 ang devolution ng functions at services ng mga LGUs.

We are also well-aware that the differing levels of technical and financial capacities of LGUs affect their absorptive capacities in implementing such policy. In line with this, we partnered again with the Department of Finance and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to continuously provide capacity building interventions appropriate and responsive to the development needs of our local governments. We are also formulating a long-term development strategy and program for LGUs through the Devolution Transition Plans.

On our end at the DBM, we remain committed to pushing for initiatives at the national level that empathize with our local governments and, in turn, empower them in achieving resilience and autonomy.

Currently, the DBM leads the Philippine Open Government Partnership or the PH-OGP which is committed to energizing civic spaces and public participation, enhancing inclusive digital revolution, amplifying discourses on anti-corruption, and strengthening reforms on transparency and accountability.

Acknowledging the importance of listening to the people in empowering them, we have enabled local government leaders, as well as other members of the civil society, to directly raise their concerns on different key issues to the Philippine government through the Dagyaw Town Hall meetings.

To sustain this platform, we hope to institutionalize the PH-OGP through an Executive Order which is expected to be approved within the first semester of 2023.

In line with the OGP principles, we have also reconstituted the DBM Fiscal Openness Working Group to lead the implementation of strategies and institutionalize fiscal transparency efforts and public participation in the Philippine budget process.

Sinisikap din namin na tunay na maunawaan at matugunan ang mga pangangailangan ng ating mga munisipalidad, hence we also target to roll out the Participatory Budgeting Program which ensures the implementation of priority poverty reduction projects as identified at the city or municipal level through participatory planning and budgeting process.

For Bureaucratic Efficiency—kasama po ‘yan sa ating 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda—we are continuously pushing for the passage of the Progressive Budgeting for Better and Modernized Governance or the PBBM Governance Bill in Congress which aims to streamline the processes of delivering programs and services across all government offices, including local government units, through digitalization.

This will be complemented by the Department’s Digital Transformation Roadmap which will facilitate faster release of data needed for government transactions to promote fiscal transparency, management, and accountability in the government. This is in line with Executive Order No. 170 signed by then-President Duterte or the Adoption of Digital Payments for Government Disbursements and Collections. Sa pamamagitan po nito, mas mabilis at mas tapat po tayong makapagbibigay ng serbisyo na angkop sa kalagayan ng ating mga mamamayan.

All of these are indications of how we seek to empathize with the needs of our local governments and our people in pursuit of good governance. It is empathy that we need as we implement the whole-of-government approach and ensure that no Filipino is left behind.

Higit pa sa paghahanda ng isang people-centered budget, tunay na nakiki-isa tayo sa ating mga kababayan sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay sa kanila ng tunay nilang pangangailangan at mga bagay na makapagpapadali sa kanilang buhay.

As we strengthen municipal capabilities and empower our people towards autonomy and resilience, let us lead with empathy.

Ilagay natin ang ating mga sarili sa kinatatayuan ng ating mga pinagsisilbihan upang tunay nating maunawaan ang kanilang mga hinaing.

Through empathy, we will all be moved to work with the best of our abilities for the betterment of our municipalities and our country. Sa tunay na pakiki-isa sa ating mga mamamayan, magiging tunay na tapat ang ating serbisyo sa ating bayan.

Maraming salamat po. Assalamu alaikum.

Mabuhay ang League of Municipalities of the Philippines! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas at mga Pilipino.

To the Executive Director of our Procurement Service (PS), Atty. Dennis Santiago, the government and business executives joining us today, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

First of all, let me congratulate PS-DBM on your efforts to bring accountability and credibility back to this office. It was great news when Atty. Santiago announced that last month, the government generated Php 681 million worth of savings in 2022 as a result of your efforts to ensure a more competitive, transparent, and efficient procurement system.

I am confident that PS-DBM will only get better, especially with our efforts towards digitalization. We have come a long way from the days when procurement was undertaken manually through phone calls, piles of requisition slips, and papers. Nowadays, we have PhilGEPS and government websites where transactions and announcements are made and can easily be monitored. Recently, PhilGEPS also expanded its digital payment options to ensure efficiency among stakeholders. And this is just the beginning.

This year, we are ramping up our efforts for a more efficient, accountable, and even sustainable procurement system. While we are on track with our Agenda for Prosperity—especially in enhancing digitalization in the government—we are also working  hard towards mainstreaming sustainability through reforms such as Green Procurement.

The Green Public Procurement Roadmap will direct the government to procure Common-use Supplies and Equipment or CSEs with reduced environmental impact throughout their cycle. In line with this, there has been an increase in the number of government agencies adopting green specifications in non-CSE items, from 26 percent of all government agencies in 2018 to 58 percent in 2020. In November 2022, we also created the Green Public Procurement Committee to ensure that the roadmap will be implemented across the government. Let me just thank Atty. Dennis Santiago because he was the one who formulated the first roadmap for Green Procurement. 

Moreover, a manual is being crafted to guide procurement practitioners in embedding green specifications in our Common-use Supplies and Equipment. This will put us closer to our ultimate goal of ensuring sustainable management and use of natural resources by 2030.

Given all these, centralized procurement is still more advantageous to the government and its people. Hence, I will continue to support PS-DBM while advocating for the restructuring of its organizational staffing and the amendment of the Government Procurement Reform Act which is already two decades old.

The law was authored by the late Senate President Edgardo Angara. It is an exemplary law but our society has changed drastically since its enactment, hence the need to update and revise it to reflect as well the latest social and technological developments that we can use to meet the law's noble objectives.

With the updated law, we will have the opportunity to put the right people in, thus ensuring accountability as well as the sustainability of the institution and our procurement system. I am confident that with the excellent leadership of Atty. Santiago, our reforms will be realized and executed with utmost integrity.

As we strive to create an efficient and transparent system—so that the public can hold accountable those who are in position—we seek your help in the sustainability aspect of our efforts as these will define our lives in the coming years and decades and impact our generations to come. We encourage you, our bidders, partners, and suppliers, to join us in ensuring that our economic transformation is not only inclusive, but also sustainable for the coming generations.

I believe that more partnerships can be forged and greater opportunities built as we foster accountability and sustainability in public procurement. With these two, we can look forward to a genuine, all-encompassing prosperity in our public institutions, private businesses, and ultimately, in our country.

As I always say, and echo Senator Angara, let us give every Filipino, including the man on the street with a family to feed, a fighting chance to create a better life for himself and for his family. This can be accomplished if we establish conducive conditions for them to reach their full potential. And this can be achieved through a sustainable and accountable procurement system that will make public service delivery more efficient and effective—one that Filipinos deserve and desire. 

Once again, thank you very much for partnering with us.

As PS-DBM works hard to bring back accountability and credibility to the procurement system, let us take it to the next level with digitalization and efforts for sustainability.

Let’s see the best PS-DBM yet—one that would make both the late, great Senate President Edgardo Angara and future generations proud. 

Maraming salamat po. Assalamu alaikum.

Good day to my fellow public servants.

Allow me to first welcome you all to the Philippine Open Government Partnership or the PH-OGP Forum. We are here today to provide a comprehensive brief on the OGP and the role it plays in Philippine governance. As such, we will repeatedly hear the words transparency, accountability, and citizen participation—words we have encountered throughout our government service. And today, we have another opportunity to take these words to heart and put them into action.

As you may know, our country is one of the founding members of Open Government Partnership, a multi-stakeholder partnership composed of government leaders and civil society advocates that aim to promote transparent, participatory, inclusive, and accountable governance. Currently, the OGP includes 78 countries and 106 local governments, and thousands of civil society organizations or CSOs.^[1]

To ensure that the bureaucracy is working for the citizenry, we are conducting participatory consultations and forging strong multi-sectoral partnerships.^[2] As a matter of fact, in the Philippine Development Plan, PH-OGP is identified as a key strategy in the practice of good governance and improvement of bureaucratic efficiency.

Since 2011, five (5) action plans consisting of 65 commitments have already been implemented. Based on the assessment conducted by the Independent Reporting Mechanism, more than half of the commitments in the Philippines’ National Action Plan are classified as ambitious—or exceeding expectations—and one-third has produced early results in fiscal openness and right to information. For instance, the Commission on Audit’s commitment to participatory social audit through the Citizen Participatory Audit or CPA Program has been recognized internationally for its impact in demonstrably improving the quality of people's lives and democracy.

Meanwhile, the Department of Finance’s commitment to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative or EITI has also resulted in the Philippines being declared as the first to have achieved satisfactory progress in the implementation of the 2016 EITI Standards. This is among 50 EITI-implementing countries around the world.

DBM’s strong commitment to fiscal openness has also resulted in the establishment of the DBM CSO Desk—a platform that will address budget-related concerns and inquiries and will provide capacity-building and training for CSOs on the budget process to enable a more meaningful engagement. A long list of our fruitful exchanges with various government agencies is found in our reports.

But I am not here to just highlight the accomplishments of PH-OGP. More importantly, we want you to know that good and open governance is within our reach—with everyone’s help.

Together, let us ensure that democracy permeates every sector of society. Let us strengthen public trust through government-initiated fora and the publication of reports and data that are open to feedback. Let us formulate plans and policies that will make a lasting impact on different groups and industries in the country. Let us ensure that accountability, transparency, and citizen participation become realities imbued in government service. Let us serve the Filipino people with Open Governance in mind.

Before I end, I would like to mention that this first quarter, we will fast-track the development of the 6th PH-OGP National Action Plan. We hope to have you onboard and involved. This forum is our way of nurturing our partnerships and forging new ones with you. As we strive to institutionalize PH-OGP to achieve a whole-of-government mechanism for anti-corruption, public participation, and bureaucratic efficiency, we recognize that as early as now, it is beneficial for all of us to learn its processes and recognize its value.

Rest assured that by being our partners, your presence, thoughts, and contributions will be valued and of course, challenged as well. At PH-OGP, we have high regard for the rigor of discourse in order for us to arrive at the wisest decision that will strengthen the collaboration between the government and the people. We believe that the more open the government is, the more opportunities we have to do better.

We are looking forward to you joining us. Maraming salamat po. Assalamu alaikum.

^[1]Open Government Partnership. https://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/.

^[2]Philippine Open Government Partnership. https://ogp.dbm.gov.ph/index.php/about-us/accomplishments.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

First, I would like to thank the Philippine Embassy, the UK Embassy in the Philippines, MP Richard Graham—and I was told that we have Filipino scholars here in UK and London, welcome! I hope you guys did not skip your class—UBS, and our partners here for hosting us and giving us this opportunity to share updates on the country's robust economic performance and investment opportunities, and on my part, our Priority Expenditures.

Today, we bring you warm greetings from the Philippines and also good news: in spite of global headwinds and the challenges of economic recovery after the pandemic lockdowns, we are on track with our Agenda for Prosperity.

However, we want to ensure that as we pursue our Agenda for Prosperity, our economic transformation is towards inclusivity and sustainability. With that in mind, our priority expenditures support the 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and will also cater to the objectives under the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028.

To give you an overview of the Fiscal Year 2023 General Appropriations Act, the National Budget of the Philippines amounts to Php 5.268 trillion or USD 94.82 billion. It is a 4.9 percent increase from 2022, and is 22.2 percent of our GDP. 

As we commit to pursuing the 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda while targeting growth, the bulk of the proposed budget will go to the Social Services sector, getting an allocation of around Php 2.0 trillion or 38 percent of the national budget.

We have maintained Education as our number one priority, which is also mandated by our Constitution. On top of this, we have given the Health Department one of the biggest increases in the budget, with the commitment to strengthen our healthcare system following lessons from the pandemic, as well as the mandate of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to expand access to affordable and inclusive healthcare nationwide. We are also strengthening social protection with a budget of almost Php 200 billion for the social welfare and development department to ensure that no one is left behind.

We are determined to make agriculture a driving force for growth and the source of our food security. Hence, to improve agricultural productivity and re-establish the Philippines as a top exporter of agricultural products, the agriculture department and its attached agencies received a budgetary boost of more than 40 percent from last year’s budget.

We are also determined to maintain infrastructure spending at 5 to 6 percent of GDP from now until 2028. With this in mind, we are continuing the Build, Build, Build Program of the previous administration, and we will now call it Build, Better, More (BBM). In line with this program, the Department of Public Works and Highways has received the second highest allocation in the budget, equivalent to 16.1 percent. Meanwhile, to improve our transportation system, the Department of Transportation has been given a 40 percent increase from its 2022 budget.

To make the Philippines an investment destination, we need to create an environment that enables economic growth. Hence, we are keen on building not just public and social infrastructure but also digital infrastructure. We are following a Digital Roadmap that will expand and improve our digital infrastructure to strengthen intergovernmental connection and enhance transparency to the public sector. 

Acknowledging the importance of sustainable economic growth, the government has also invested heavily in renewable energy infrastructure and alternative resources that will contribute to sustainable development. For 2023, the budget for climate change adaptation and mitigation is significantly higher by around 60 percent from previous year’s allocation.

We are also pursuing legislation for budget reforms that would safeguard the integrity of our budget process. Foremost of which is the Progressive Budgeting for Better and Modernized Governance or the PBBM Governance Bill which seeks to institutionalize key Public Financial Management reforms including the cash budgeting system. 

We are striving to build an agile, efficient, and more responsive government workforce through the National Government Rightsizing Program. This will minimize and eliminate overlaps and duplication of functions, and reduce costs, processing time, and other regulatory requirements in government transactions. 

We are also pursuing a Green Public Procurement Roadmap wherein the government will procure common-use supplies and equipment items with green specifications.

As you can see, the Philippines is now not just open for business but we mean business.

We not only meet but surpass our economic targets.

We are on track with our Agenda for Prosperity and I am confident that as long as we stay the path, we will also achieve our targets of single-digit poverty levels and upper middle-income class status as planned.

The time to invest in the Philippines is now. We have a hardworking administration, we have high economic growth, we have peace in Mindanao, and most of all, we have sunshine all year-round.

So we look forward to another BBM: the British Building More … in the Philippines.

Thank you so much. Mabuhay. Assalamu alaikum.