To the Philippine League of Local Budget Officers (PHILLBO) Inc.’s members, officials, and Board of Directors; DBM Regional Directors and personnel; and to our Local Budget and Finance Officers and Public Financial Management (PFM) practitioners, good day. Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

I am happy to be here again at your Annual Convention. A day before this same event last year, we had just presented the 2023 National Expenditure Program to Congress. Today, I am proud to share that our 2023 National Budget is the fastest to be enacted in recent history, having been signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. last December 16, or merely five months from when I took my oath of office.

Now, we must carry the responsibility of efficiently implementing this budget for programs and projects that truly respond to every need of every Filipino and improve their quality of life.

I am glad that for this year’s theme, you chose “Digital Transformation to Strengthen LGU Public Financial Management.”

Indeed, digitalization has become essential for us to better and sooner achieve our economic objectives in today's world. In fact, it has become a priority of this Administration, through the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and with no less than President BBM himself saying before the United Nations General Assembly that digital transformation is what’s needed for nations to keep abreast of a changing world.

In line with the Administration’s 8-point Socioeconomic Agenda and the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028, we at the DBM have also adopted digital transformation as a strategy to achieve our Agenda for Prosperity.

In crafting the Php 5.268 trillion National Budget for 2023, digital transformation was established as one of our key government reforms because this translates to more efficient public service delivery, as well as more transparent, credible, and clean governance. It will also help the government build robust data systems that will create better programs, such as targeted social protection and more efficient employment opportunity linking systems.

Because developing and strengthening our ICT infrastructure is imperative, we have allocated a total of Php 24.13 billion for ICT-related expenditures this year. This covers funding for the Free Public Internet Access Program, National Government Data Center Infrastructure, National Broadband Plan, and the National Government Portal, among others.

Under this budget, some Php 3.56 billion was given to the Department of Finance and its attached agencies, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs, to improve government revenue collection through digitalization.

Meanwhile, Php 2.06 billion was allotted for the Philippine Identification System which will afford Filipinos faster delivery of social welfare benefits. A portion of the Php 7.24 billion financial assistance allocated to LGUs can also be used for Information and Communications Technology systems and infrastructure development, such as, but not limited to, the establishment of an Integrated Business Permit and Licensing System, and digitalization of payments for collections and disbursements.

These also complement the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Executive Order No. 170 which mandates the adoption of digital payments for government disbursements and collections, ultimately promoting financial inclusion—an advocacy I have been pushing for even while I was still with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Relating to this event’s theme, digital transformation is also a vital tool in strengthening PFM at all levels of government, especially at the local level. However, for this to come to life, we need an enabling environment that would focus on digitalizing key PFM processes. Last December, the PFM Committee—composed of the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, the Commission on Audit, and the Bureau of the Treasury—agreed to leverage digitalization in pursuing its PFM Reform Agenda.

To this end, we continue to lobby and work with Congress toward the enactment of the Progressive Budgeting for Better and Modernized Governance or the PBBM Governance Bill. This will institutionalize the Integrated Financial Management Information System and strengthen implementation of the Cash Budgeting System. Just last month, we also briefed the Senate Committee on Finance and discussed ways forward for the Bill. We hope that through the PBBM Governance Bill, we will finally truly modernize our budgeting system; resolve the fragmented PFM legal framework; and promote public participation in the budget process.

To strengthen the PFM of LGUs, DBM is also continuously providing PFM Competency Program classes to PFM practitioners. In fact, last December, we concluded the PFMCP for BARMM Middle Managers, engaging a total of 140 PFM practitioners from the Region.

In seeking to make DBM a true champion of digitalization, last December as well, we signed a Memorandum of Agreement with our Government Servicing Banks namely Landbank of the Philippines, Philippine Veterans Bank, and Development Bank of the Philippines for the Online Release of the Notice of Cash Allocation through the Action Document Releasing System (ADRS).

This will eliminate the unnecessary steps of printing, physically signing, routing, and releasing of the printed Action Document to the banks’ Liaison Officers.

This initiative will not only make the lives of our public servants easier, but will also contribute to our efforts for a paperless bureaucracy. More than that, full implementation of releases through the ADRS is expected to generate savings amounting to around Php 33 million per year.

I am also excited to share that the Department will soon launch our 2022 to 2026 Digital Transformation Roadmap, which focuses on building a convergent hub by establishing Application Programming Interfaces, utilizing GovTech, enabling Digital Tax Bypass, and leveraging Data Engineering and System Integration.

Digital transformation of the bureaucracy would only be possible through your support and cooperation. So I hope that you will continue to support us in DBM as we implement our reforms. Rest assured that you can count on us to always support you in your digitalization endeavors and provide guidance should you need any.

Indeed, transforming the bureaucracy is never easy. Change is never easy. But progress is never possible without change. And having this opportunity to be part of this change—for the better—will be one of our legacies as public servants.
So I call on every local budget officer and PFM practitioner, for all of us to work together in making our vision of digital transformation a reality—so that we can deliver a sound, systematic, transparent, and accountable form of governance that the Filipino people deserve and desire.

Thank you very much. Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas at mga Pilipino. Maraming salamat po.