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Lacson vows 'historic' budget hike for PH research and dev't if he wins in 2022

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Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Sen. Panfilo Lacson presides over a Senate hearing on the red tagging of certain celebrities, personalities, institutions, and organizations. Joseph Vidal, Senate PRIB/File" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/news/12/11/20201103-lacson-ping-prib.jpg"/><figcaption>Sen. Panfilo Lacson presides over a Senate hearing on the red tagging of certain celebrities, personalities, institutions, and organizations. <em>Joseph Vidal, Senate PRIB/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA - Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Saturday vowed to include a &quot;historic increase of budget infusion&quot; for the Philippines&#x27; research and development efforts if elected president next year.</p><p>Currently, government-funded research and development projects in the country account for &quot;a ridiculously pitiful share of just 0.4 percent of the national budget,&quot; Lacson said in an online forum put together by Cignal TV and FINEX.</p><p>&quot;I will guarantee a historic increase of budget infusion for our research and development efforts,&quot; said the Partido para sa Demokratikong Reporma standard-bearer in the 2022 presidential race, but did not specify how much.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/08/21/up-clinicians-engineers-develop-new-health-devices">UP clinicians, engineers develop new health devices for pandemic response</a></li></ul><p>Lacson did not give details which sectors would receive a chunk of the proposed budget, although he said his administration would focus on the &quot;digitalization of government processes.&quot;</p><p>&quot;If we truly intend to plug the loopholes in our governance platforms, we need to boost the digitalization of government processes,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;Through the outpouring of resources for automation and interoperability of government agencies, I am confident that we can minimize, if not totally eliminate corruption in government, which can ultimately lead to improved and higher revenue collection and faster, more efficient business transactions.&quot;</p><p>In July, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña said the agency&#x27;s current P22.8-billion budget has not reached the benchmark set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).</p><p>&quot;Doon sa UNESCO benchmark, they say that the spending for the R&amp;D of a country at least should be 1 percent of the gross domestic product. Sa atin, less than that (Ours is less than that),&quot; Dela Peña said then.</p><p>&quot;If based on UN benchmark na 1 percent of GDP, dapat po ang budget ng DOST ay nasa P140 billion po,&quot; DOST Undersecretary Rowena Guevarra added.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/16/21/dost-umaaray-maliit-pondo-research-development">DOST umaaray sa maliit na pondo sa research, development projects</a></li></ul><p>The lack of funds for R&amp;D has limited the research proposals the DOST could fund.</p><p>Last year, the DOST said it could only support 88 projects out of the 888 R&amp;D proposals it received for 2021.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/23/20/dost-can-fund-only-10-pct-of-research-proposals-without-budget-hike-official">DOST can fund only 10 pct of research proposals without budget hike - official</a></li></ul><div><strong>OTHER BUDGET REFORMS</strong></div><p>If he wins the presidential race next year, Lacson said he would also remove &quot;the age-old practice of imposing a budget ceiling for the different national agencies to work on&quot; so that the Philippines can shift to a &quot;zero-based budget planning.&quot;</p><p>&quot;This is our budget reform to improve the delivery of basic services, creating employment opportunities, and improving the lives of our people, especially in the disadvantaged, far-flung communities,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;A bonus outcome of this approach is decongestion of a few highly urbanized metropolitan areas best exemplified by Metro Manila and Metro Cebu,&quot; he said.</p><p>Lacson is also pushing to decentralize the budget, and give local governments a bigger chunk of the nation&#x27;s annual fund.</p><p>&quot;I saw the need to re-allocate the national budget... A meaningful devolution not only on paper, but the actual downloading of functions and fair share of budgetary resources to the Local Government Units.&quot;</p><p>Doing this would enable local governments to implement &quot;capacity-building interventions to make them competitive, especially those municipalities in the 5th and 6th class categories,&quot; he said.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1728795" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Saturday vowed to include a 'historic increase of budget infusion' for the Philippines' research and development efforts if elected president next year.

Lacson vows 'historic' budget hike for PH research and dev't if he wins in 2022

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Lacson vows 'historic' budget hike for PH research and dev't if he wins in 2022

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 31, 2021 07:55 AM PHT

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