January 21, 2002, AFP, Philippines gets 15 billion-dollar budget for 2002,

January 21, 2002, AFP, Philippines gets 15 billion-dollar budget for 2002,

MANILA, Jan 21 (AFP) -

President Gloria Arroyo on Monday approved the Philippine government's 2002 budget for 780.8 billion pesos (15 billion dollars), with the lion's share going to education and social services.

The budget is nearly 12 percent larger than the 699.98 billion pesos allocated in 2001.

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin said in a statement the budget reflected the government's efforts to address the basic needs of the people while investing in long-term economic growth.

She said about 30 percent or 230 billion pesos of the new budget would go to the social services sector and 13 percent or 103.3 billion pesos for education.

The defense department will get only a mere 5.3 percent of the budget, or about 41.5 billion pesos.

Boncodin said the budget would be supported by a projected revenue of about 624.3 billion pesos, an increase of 11 percent from last year's revenue target of 558.2 billion pesos.

More than 90 percent of the projected income was likely to come from taxes, Boncodin said, adding the government had already put in place measures to improve revenue collection.

She said the government projected a 130 billion-peso budget deficit this year to support a targeted economic growth of between 4.0 and 4.5 percent.

The economy was estimated to have grown by 3.3 percent last year on the back of a budget deficit of 147 billion pesos.

In coping with the deficit this year, Boncodin said 26 percent or 204.3 billion dollars of the budget would go to paying off creditors.

She said the deficit this year would be financed by issuing treasury bonds locally and overseas as well as through loans.