DBM launches 2016 edition of People’s Budget

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) launched the 2016 edition of the People’s Budget (PB), an annual publication aimed at making each year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) accessible to the public.

This latest edition of the PB marks six years of providing the Filipino people with a Citizens Budget, a key budget document and a measure of commitment to fiscal transparency under the Open Government Partnership, according to Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad.

“The National Budget is the most important policy document of a government. As a budget transparency practice, there must be full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information to the public in accessible language and in a timely and systematic manner,” Abad said.

“Citizens Budgets have become a new global fiscal transparency standard. This is proven by the fact that more countries are now publishing Citizens Budgets — from 26 countries in 2012 to 54 in 2015,” he added.

Abad said that the Philippines' Citizens Budget, called the People's Budget, was launched in 2011 and has since become a model around the world for how to visualize the budget and translate fiscal information to language that citizens understand.

It has been expanded from a booklet summarizing the annual GAA in 2011 to other forms and media like audio-visual presentations, social media content, and newspaper advertisements.

“The annual publication of the People’s Budget is one of the reasons the Philippines is recognized as a global leader in fiscal transparency by the latest Open Budget Survey,” Abad said.

The Philippines scored 64 out of a possible 100 points for transparency in the 2015 Open Budget Survey (OBS), a biennial survey and the world’s only independent and comparative measure of budget transparency.

That score indicates that the government provides the public with substantial budget information.

The People’s Budget features plain language and graphics- driven summaries of budget policies and reforms, macroeconomic assumptions and the fiscal program, dimensions of the national expenditure program, and priority programs and projects of the 2016 GAA.

This year’s People’s Budget will be printed in Cebuano, English, and Tagalog, while flyers summarizing the 2016 GAA will be published Ilocano, Bicolano, and Hiligaynon as well.

The DBM has also published the People’s Proposed Budget since 2013, which summarizes the National Expenditure Plan.

Starting today, the 2016 People’s Budget is available here. DBM also announced that physical copies of the People’s Budget will be available within the next month. Citizens interested in receiving a copy can request one through publicinfo@dbm.gov.ph.