The community quarantines imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic continues to drag the government’s infrastructure and capital spending in October, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported on Thursday.
In its latest disbursement report, the Budget department said expenditures reached P57.1 billion in the 10th month, a 30.6-percent reduction from P82.2 billion a year earlier but a 0.2-percent increase from September’s P56.9 billion.
According to the DBM, the increase in disbursements for the capital outlay projects of the Department of National Defense under the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program tempered the decrease in the infrastructure spending of the Departments of Public Works and Highways and of Transportation.
“[T]he implementation of some government infrastructure projects has been hindered by various delays, especially during the imposition of community quarantine measures in the earlier part of the year to contain the” spread of the coronavirus, it said.
For the first 10 months, disbursements declined by 18.4 percent to P508.5 billion from P622.9 billion in the same period in 2019, “owing mainly to the delays encountered in the implementation of public works and the discontinuance of some projects due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” it added.
This brought total government spending in the 10 months ending October — which includes those for maintenance, personnel services and subsidies — to P3.31 trillion. This is 12.7 percent or P374.5 billion higher than the year-ago amount, which the DBM attributed to “higher maintenance spending and subsidy support to government corporations for the Covid-19 measures under RA (Republic Act) 11469 or the ‘Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan 1).’”
In particular, the government allotted P520.6 billion to local government units, P889.8 billion to personnel services, P205.9 billion to subsidies and P335 billion to interest payments.
In an outlook for the rest of the year, the Budget department said P154.2 billion worth of allotments had been issued to various agencies, based on the preliminary report of allotment releases covering November.
It added that releases under RA 11494, or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” (Bayanihan 2) have reached P96.4 billion as of November 30.
The DBM said these releases were expected to push government disbursements closer to attaining its full-year target narrow the recorded spending gap of P246.2 billion, or 7.2 percent of the program for January to September.