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Popularly called bottoms up budgeting, or BUB for short, it first made its mark during the administration of the late President Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino IIL

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

Popularly called bottoms up or BUB for short, it first made its mark during the administration of the late President Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino IIL The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), headed then by ex-Batanes representative turned secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, came up with this catchy term. Launched in 2012 by the DBM, BUB was acknowledged as a key budget reform measure.

Described as “grassroots participatory budgeting,” this involved local communities and citizens being given a say in identifying and prioritizing projects to be funded by the national budget. BUB encourages and promotes participation of local government units (LGUs) to help identify and recommend priority programs and projects for possible funding in the annual budget of the national government. The role of the LGUs in BUB is through their respective regional development councils (RDCs), which are composed of the provincial mayors in each region.

Some of the flood control projects earlier found defective and substandard were undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) without prior consultation with LGU executives. Cases in point were those of Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, Oriental Mindoro Governor Humerlito Dolor and the various LGU executives in many of the flood-prone areas in Bulacan.

Mayor Belmonte discovered to her dismay several flood control projects were undertaken without prior consultation with the city government. The worse part of it, Mayor Belmonte found out from residents in these areas, is that they did not experience flooding in the past. But after the DPWH built these supposed flood mitigating structures, these areas in Quezon City get flooded at the slightest rainfall. On inspection of flood control projects in the province, Gov. Dolor found defective, if not substandard cement, iron bars and other materials were used.