The Department of Budget and Management has released as of end-June about P1.36 trillion or 74.9 percent of the 2012 national budget for government agencies and programs.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said that the releases drove “our fiscal momentum forward.”

In May, the National Economic Development Authority said that the economy grew 6.4 percent in 2012’s first quarter.

Early this July, Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s upgraded the Philippines credit rating to just below investment grade.

And on Monday, the International Monetary Fund maintained its 5.4-percent average growth forecast for the ASEAN-5, which includes the Philippines.

“The [budget] releases also helps ensure that agencies will have the sufficient means and capacity to roll out their programs and deliver quicker benefits to all Filipinos,” said Abad in a statement Tuesday.

Of the P1.36 trillion released, P43.21 billion went to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino or the conditional cash transfer program. An additional P1.23 billion was released to the agency for the social pension of indigent senior citizens.

The Department of Public Works and Highways received the highest released department allocation of P78 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of national arterial and secondary roads and bridges and implementation of major flood control projects. The department was also given P16.72 billion for foreign-assisted roads and flood control projects.

The Department of Agriculture was given P37.2 billion. Of the amount, P22.07 billion was allocated for the construction, restoration, and rehabilitation of national irrigation projects, P12.68 billion for the implementation of rice and fisheries programs, and P2.5 billion for the construction of farm-to-market roads.

The budget releases under the personal services category reached 99.8 percent, or P425.25 billion, of the programmed funds. Maintenance and other operating expenses releases reach P216.7 billion, or 98.4 percent of the planned funding.

Fund releases for capital outlay reached P162.3 billion, or 78 percent of the year’s program.

The budget department noted that special purpose funds make-up a significant portion of the budget release at P79.55 billion or 33.4 percent of the programmed P237 billion.

A sizeable part of the SPF will account for salary increases of government employees under the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law III at P29.05 billion, the DBM said.

“As we continue to plug more funds into the Administration’s priority programs, we ask all agencies to optimize the releases made to them. This way, the implementation of key projects will proceed as scheduled, and the agencies themselves can speed up critical service delivery to the public,” Abad said in the statement. (GMA News)