The 2012 budget reflects a balance between social services and economic services spending. This contrasts with the 2011 budget which is biased toward social services spending. Nevertheless, despite the higher allocation on the economic services sectors in 2012, the spending levels, particularly on infrastructure, are still insufficient to achieve high and sustained inclusive growth. The spending levels for the year on education, health, and social welfare services also continue to lag behind those of other countries in the region.
Meanwhile, the accompanying special papers in this volume investigate the issues and concerns in the Philippine system of higher education. The first one reviews the effectiveness and efficiency of state universities and colleges (SUCs) vis-Ã -vis their funding. The second paper evaluates the performance of SUCs in terms of efficiency and productivity in 2006-2009 using Data Envelopment Analysis. While the results point to the inefficiency of SUCs, the study also recommends further research to analyze the factors that affect their performance.
