Barangays to benefit from BUB program
Barangays in Cebu province will soon be able to ask funding for their projects directly from the national government through the expanded Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) program.
More than 800 barangay captains and councilors from all over the province attended a consultation with national government officials at the Cebu Grand Hotel yesterday.
Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said the objective of the meeting was to prepare barangays to determine which projects they would like to undertake, due for implementation by January 2017.
“(Barangays) are the frontliners, but they have the least experience in managing projects,” he told reporters yesterday.
The cities of Talisay and Mandaue, and the towns of Sogod, Liloan, Cordova, and Balamban were represented in the meeting.
Also present were Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, Provincial Board Member Celestino “Tining” Martinez III, Interior Secretary Mel Sarmiento, and Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, among others.
Out of the more than 42,000 barangays in the Philippines, only a third or 14,000 will be included in the first batch of implementors next year.
Under the program, funding should be used for frontline services and disaster management projects.
Abad said that 95 percent of all barangays in the country have an Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of P3 million or less.
He urged barangay officials to come up with project proposals that are small and manageable like water systems or daycare centers that cost P500,000 and below.
The secretary stressed that barangay officials should undergo an orientation and consultation process to make them capable to manage their proposed projects.
The expansion to barangays is a continuation of the BUB program started by the national government in 2012, initially covering 700 towns and cities with a budget of P8.3 billion.
This year, Abad said they are also expanding the program to all cities and towns with a budget of P25 billion and 82 provinces with an initial allocation of P6.5 billion.
At the provincial level, funds will be used to rehabilitate and pave provincial roads in line with the national government’s thrust to move infrastructure development to the local level.
“We won’t start with a big amount of money because we want to test first if the provincial governments have the capacity,” he said.
Abad said the national government will devote 2016 to teaching barangay units how to create project proposals, prepare costings, and come up with physical and financial reports.
The Barangay Development Council — composed of barangay council members, civil society organizations, and representatives of congressmen —- will determine which projects to propose.
The final list of barangays to implement projects under the BUB program will be released by April and the budget for that will already be included in the General Appropriations Act for 2017 by July.
Secretary Abad added that barangays that have needs and the capacity to manage will be prioritized in the list.
“What’s problematic is having barangays that don’t have the capacity. They might not finish the project and get into problems once they get audited by the Commission on Audit. We don’t want that,” he said.
Full implementation of the Barangay BUB will start in 2018, wherein a new batch of projects will be implemented until all 42,036 barangays are covered.
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