GOVPH

14 June 2018 | 10:00 am | Muralla 1, Bayleaf Hotel Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno Department of Budget and Management (DBM)     To our development partners, my colleagues in the Department of Budget and Management, ladies and gentlemen: Good morning. When I was appointed Budget Chief by President Duterte, I was determined to champion the modernization of the Philippine budgeting system. Admittedly, it is an ambitious and difficult quest, considering that in the past, similar bills were filed in Congress, but none get to first base. Hopefully this time around, with a reform-oriented President and a supportive Congress, we will have the Budget Modernization Bill (BRM) enacted into law within the year. Today, I open this forum with the goal of further enlightening our development partners on the benefits to be derived from the Budget Modernization Program. Later, I will discuss the impact of the shift from two-year obligation-based budgeting to a one-year cash-based appropriation to the...

2:00 p.m. | 8 June 2018 | Justo Albert Auditorium, PLM Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno Department of Budget and Management   To University President Dr. Ma. Leonora de Jesus, University Officials, Members of the Board of Regents, College of Medicine Dean Angeline Alabastro, Administrators, Faculty and Staff, to our dear graduates, their parents, families, and friends; good afternoon.   First of all, let me thank you for having me as the speaker for today’s commencement exercises. My warmest congratulations to the Class of 2018!   Full disclosure: I am not a doctor. Well, at least, not your kind of doctor. I have a Ph.D. in Economics. That’s quite different. So when I was asked to give the commencement speech for your graduation, I was not quite sure what you expected me to say. Surely, I do not have the experience required to prepare you for your entry into hospitals, private practice, or whichever path there is for you to take when you finally claim the title of “Doctor”.   I asked myself:...

17 May 2018 | 1:00 PM | Shangri-La Hotel, Makati Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, PhD Department of Budget and Management (DBM)           To all the local executives in attendance, esteemed guests from the private sector, colleagues in the Cabinet, ladies and gentlemen: Good afternoon.           Before we proceed with our discussion, allow me to give some brief remarks on the DBCC decision on the FY 2019 Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). Along the way, I’d also like to give my thoughts on the fiscal and economic implications of the proposed shift to Federalism.                 Last April 24, the DBCC held its 172nd meeting to deliberate on economic and budgetary matters. The collegial body decided that pending the decision of the Supreme Court on the consolidated cases of Enrique Garcia vs. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Mandanas,et.al., vs. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, the IRA revenue base shall be maintained as laid out by DBCC Resolution No. 2003-02, entitled, “Defining the Revenue Base of the Internal...

  Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, PhD Department of Budget and Management   Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning/good afternoon! It is an honor to be amongst the most noble and daring reformers of Southeast Asia and Korea, to share ideas on public sector reforms in and for our respective countries in particular, and for the region in general, from the perspective of a wider lens and a profound yet pragmatic discourse. But before I share some of the Philippines’ major development strategies and experiences in this regard, under the leadership of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, allow me to thank the Korea Research Institute of the University of New South Wales, Australia for organizing this very important event, which would definitely expand our knowledge understanding, as we learn from country experiences. Without further ado, let me now bring to the table some of the key game-changing reforms from the Philippines, which have helped secure and maintain the country’s place as an...

Philippines-Open Government Partnership Week DBM Central Office | May 8, 2018 Secretary Benjamin Diokno Department of Budget and Management   To my fellow workers in government, members of civil society organizations, participants from various business groups, colleagues in the academe, good morning. I am glad to see familiar faces here.  I know a lot of you participated during the series of Open Government and Participatory Governance dialogues that were concluded recently. Now, I am pleased to welcome you again, this time in the halls of the Department of Budget and Management, the home of the Philippine Open Government Partnership Secretariat.   As many of you already know, the Philippines is one of the founding members of the Open Government Partnership or OGP, a multilateral initiative that promotes transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in all aspects of governance. Under the Duterte administration, we continue to mainstream the OGP principles and mechanisms as...

EDSA Shangri-la | 7 May 2018   Secretary Benjamin Diokno Department of Budget and Management Good morning. First, allow me to thank my esteemed colleagues from the Asian Development Bank, ADB Institute, International Budget Partnership, and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for inviting me to open this very timely and relevant good governance event. Today’s gathering is a perfect way to start our celebration of the first ever global Open Government Week which will run today up until this Friday, May 11.   The Philippines is one of the eight founding countries of the Open Government Partnership or OGP, a multilateral effort that seeks to make governments better by way of co-creating programs that promote transparency, fight corruption, engage citizens, and harness new technologies for more efficient governance.   My decades of experience in the public sector has taught me that the national budget is the most potent tool for development, and one of the biggest...

  12 April 2018 | 4:45 - 5:00 PM | Shangri-La, Singapore   Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, PhD Department of Budget and Management (DBM)       Now, we’re in the end of this high-level dialogue on ASEAN-Italy economic relations, so hang in there.            First, let me thank Ambrosseti for having me here.          To the esteemed investors in attendance, fellow public sector officials, members of the academe, guests, ladies and gentlemen: Good afternoon.            I have listened with a lot of interest and I’m impressed with the quality of the conversation. Much has been accomplished in this high-level dialogue cutting across nationalities and sectors.            For all our takeaways and learnings, I’m sure the common sentiment in this room is the need to promote greater cooperation, and the need to do more. ASEAN has much to offer to the global community, and yes to the Italians. The ASEAN region is a burgeoning powerhouse with a consumer base of more than 600 million people. With a relatively younger population and being home to...

More than most countries in the world, the Philippines is one of the most susceptible to the repercussions of climate change due to its location and geography. For one, sea level rise is a threat to the Philippine coastline with 42% of the coastal population and 14% of the total population at risk. The Philippines is the 4th most affected from 1995-2014 in terms of long-term climate risk index. We are also fourth in the list of countries most affected by extreme weather events. But while climate change is an overarching issue that poses challenges, we try to look at it with a positive lens that sees opportunities for attaining inclusive growth and alleviating poverty. This is why the Philippines leads in mobilizing the budget process to more effectively identify, plan, budget, monitor, and report the government’s climate change response. Building on the results of the 2013 Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) and the ongoing public financial management (PFM)...

Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Ph.D. Department of Budget and Management   Overview of the Philippines’ economic blueprint        It is my pleasure to be discussing with you today one of the most significant and most pertinent aspects of the Philippines’ economic blueprint: our budget priorities. I will try to make this as thorough as possible, to give you a clear picture of the sound economic blueprint that we have crafted. The famed slogan of our administration, “Change is coming”, articulates the government's goal of being a catalyst of real change in the Philippines. Our target is to push the Philippine economy to upper middle income status by 2022. In the process, we aim to achieve an annual growth of 7% to 8% in the medium term. We also aim to reduce poverty from 21.6% in 2015 to 14% in 2022. As such, to realize these lofty goals, we are focusing on two spending priorities: infrastructure and human capital development.   Spending Priority: Infrastructure Good infrastructure is a requisite to...

  Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Ph.D. Department of Budget and Management   Good morning, everyone.   Today I will be updating you on the Philippines’ latest economic developments and investment priorities.   Last year, the Philippines posted a growth rate of 6.7%. This makes us one of the fastest growing economies in the fastest growing region in the world.   Multilateral organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development bank all project the Philippines to grow steadily in the near-term. All three organizations peg our growth to reach almost 7% (about 6.7% to 6.9%) from 2017 to 2019. In their forecasts, this is the highest among the ASEAN-5 countries.   We are more ambitious than these forecasts. In the medium term, we want to achieve growth of 7% to 8%, pushing the Philippine economy to upper-middle income status by 2022. In terms of development, we want to reduce poverty from 21.6% in 2015 to at least 14% in 2022.   These lofty goals are buoyed by...