CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro -- The MIMAROPA Regional Development Council (RDC) conducted the FY 2024 regional budget forum on February 2, through Zoom video conference. The forum aimed to orient the participants on the salient features of the National Budget Memorandum (NBM) No. 145 and the guidelines and requirements for preparing 2024 budget proposals. The forum also served as a venue for the agencies to clarify issues and concerns relative to 2024 budget proposal preparation.
MIMAROPA RDC Vice-Chairperson Agustin C. Mendoza who is also Regional Director (RD) of the NEDA Regional Office (NRO) MIMAROPA welcomed the 190 participants from various regional line agencies (RLAs), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), and state universities and colleges (SUCs), local government units (LGUs), district representatives, and private sector representatives (PSRs). He informed the participants that the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 was approved by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., by virtue of Executive Order No. 14. He stressed the importance of preparing a realistic budget proposal that is aligned with the strategies identified in the PDP and the Regional Development Plan (RDP) 2023-2028.
The forum started with the presentation of the National Budget Call for FY 2024 by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) MIMAROPA RD Ricky L. Sanchez. He emphasized that the FY 2024 National Expenditure Program will ensure that only implementation-ready agency proposals are included, given the conflicting demands of government programs against limited resources. He added that the budget proposals of the agencies must be in accordance with the 8-point Socioeconomic Agenda, PDP 2023-2028, the medium-term fiscal framework, build better more programs, LGU capacity-building programs, and the harmonization of regional plans with national priorities.
On the other hand, Mr. Joe Mari Francisco of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) discussed the National Climate Change Expenditure Tagging (CCET) as stipulated in the DBM-CCC JMC 2015-01. The JMC directed all national government agencies, SUCs, and GOCCs to tag their budgets for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The FY 2024 Annual Investment Program for MIMAROPA, which will serve as the basis for identifying the priority programs and projects that will be included in the FY 2024 agency budget proposals, was presented by NRO MIMAROPA ARD Apollo Edwin S. Pagano. Meanwhile, Mr. Bernardino A. Atienza, Chief Economic Development Specialist of NRO MIMAROPA, discussed the guidelines for the conduct of FY 2024 RDC budget review and consultation. Questions and concerns raised by the participants were answered by the concerned resource persons during the open forum.
The ongoing and proposed PAPs of AROs and SUCs for FY 2024 will be presented in the RDC sectoral committee meetings for the first quarter on February 21-24, 2023 before being endorsed by the RDC Full Council on March 17, 2023. (NEDA MIMAROPA)
