Citizen participation is key to
government’s Bottom-Up Budgeting program - Roxas
By Angelica Katheryn Carballo
Speaking in front of around 250 non-government organizations during the 5th Congress and 20th year anniversary of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE NGO) held at the Ateneo de Manila University, Roxas said that citizen-government partnership should be encouraged through constructive engagement.
By Angelica Katheryn Carballo
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Department of
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas III announced on Wednesday
that the promise of the President Benigno ‘Noynoy” Aquino III of a more
transparent and participative government will be realized through the Bottom-Up
Budgeting (BUB) process that is already being implemented in pilot
municipalities in the Philippines.
Speaking in front of around 250 non-government organizations during the 5th Congress and 20th year anniversary of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE NGO) held at the Ateneo de Manila University, Roxas said that citizen-government partnership should be encouraged through constructive engagement.
“For a
government to be successful, we should harness the power of the people and
encourage partnership with the citizenry,” Roxas said.
He said the
BUB will help in making the budget work “where work needs to be done”.
The BUB
process is the localization of anti-poverty initiatives through active and
meaningful citizen’s participation in the planning of the government budget.
The first phase
of the BUB identified 600 municipalities and cities where civil society
organizations collaborated with government agencies and local government units
to craft the 2013 national budget.
This process
ensures that government funds will work in areas that are really needed to
boost poverty reduction and development projects and activities.
“We have
limited funds, so we want to make sure that these will go to projects that
match the actual needs of the citizens” Roxas added.
Roxas also
said that the Aquino government is very receptive and even encourages
constructive engagement and even challenged the NGOs to ‘test the limits of
engagement in the government’.
“Sabi nga,
malapit na tayo sa kusina, andito na tayo sa kusina, ano na ang gagawin natin?”
Roxas asked the participants.
“We challenge
you to speak up, don’t be frightened, ngayong andito na tayo sa kusina, wala
namang masisira, wala namang mababasag,” the DILG secretary said, saying that
the government needs all the inputs it can get from the CSOs in order to ‘cook
good and nutritious food in the kitchen’.
Roxas also
announced that the second phase of the BUB process will involve more than 1,200
municipalities and cities, which is almost double the number of the
municipalities and cities involved in the initial phase.
In October
2012, CODE-NGO forged a memorandum of agreement with DILG, then headed by the
late Secretary Jesse Robredo, together with Transparency and Accountability
Network Inc. (TAN) and Task-Force Participatory Local Governance which aims to
pursue effective mobilization of CSOs as strategic partners of DILG in
promoting responsible and accountable governance.
“By working
together, civil society and government would be able to come up with solutions
and mechanisms to make sure that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and
effectively,” CODE-NGO Executive Director Donato Macasaet said in a statement.
Eric Galvin,
Attache to the European Union and representatives of CODE NGO signed the
partnership agreement on Citizen’s Participation in Monitoring LGU performance
and Development Planning on Poverty Reduction (Citizen’s MLPD-PR). National
Anti-Poverty Commission lead convener Joel Rocamora also witnessed the signing
of the agreement.
The
partnership will undertake and support appropriate Local Anti-Poverty Planning
(LAPP) and budgeting in 24 poor municipalities in the Philippines towards
improving the LGU governance and service delivery particularly in agriculture
and health.
