Reference to Inquirer News:
This Bottoms-Up-Budgeting (BUB) by the Aquino III administration is an interesting and welcome initiative in attempts to democratize development and nation-building. I believe that the idea is very much akin to "participatory budgeting" which originated in Brasil. We can only wish this project well. Let's see how this new "method" fares when implemented in poor local government units (LGUs) with deep-seated impoverished political-economic structure. In particular, how will this BUB "method" contend with the entrenched "structures" of political clientelism and economically depressed markets at these poor LGUs?
Resolving poverty — i.e., the art and science of development — has never been easy. The "political" problem of patronage may be addressed through political will of the reformers at the top alongside active citizenship from below. But the "economic" aspect of poverty would have to deal with the classic underdevelopment problem of capital formation. How does the PNoy administration plan to create capitalist markets in these localities when there won't be capitalists who would risk to invest in business in municipalities with no purchasing power of the workers? A case in point: many OFWs initiated small businesses in their municipalities only to realize sooner that there is no market — specifically, the circulation of production and consumption — there.
How will this BUB method ensure the realization of a key development strategy (which proponents of MDGs have been so late to recognize): the creation of jobs, employment, or livelihood???
Further, the BUB method has to be linked with a broader or an overarching development vision and strategy ("Daang matuwid"? But what does this really mean?). This also demands a responsible citizenry who should be vigilant all the time and who must be conscientious to vote for politicians who will take good care of their budget allotment and taxes.
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