The Duterte administration is eyeing P4.64 trillion cash budget for 2021 to continue support the anti-poverty and peace-sustaining measures of the government.

The proposed 2021 national budget was reached during the 177th interagency Development Budget Coordinating Committee meeting in Pasay City.

"FY 2021 is higher by P540 billion or 13.3 percent than the P4.100 trillion cash budget for FY 2020 and is equivalent to 20.2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product)," said Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, DBCC chair.

He said the proposed 2021 national budget will continue to support anti-poverty and peace-sustaining measures through funding of recently-approved legislative measures.

Avisado said the government will continue to fund the priority social protection and economic programs, such as the Universal Health Care Program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Rice Tariffication Law, Provision for the Annual Block Grant, Special Development Fund, and Share in National Taxes of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education, Refocusing of National Government assistance to LGUs with high poverty incidence, and Climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

"The DBCC also approved the creation of the Subcommittee on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to review and recommend to the DBCC SDG-related policies and programs," he added.

Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III welcomed the approval by the bicameral conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the P4.1 trillion budget for next year.

"Certainly, there will be much improvement over last year so we are quite pleased that we will start the year with a honest to goodness 2020 budget rather than what happened last year," he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte was only able to sign into law the current 2019 budget of P3.757 trillion last April, affecting the government's programs and projects.

"Well, in terms of the timetable, we are glad that they have finally approve it or ratified it because it will then also fasttrack the signing of the 2020 budget by the President that is within the month," Avisado said. Celerina Monte/DMS