Saan napupunta ang pera natin?

Let’s be honest. The moment the words “national budget deliberations” flash on the news, it’s our cue to zone out. Our eyes glaze over as politicians throw around numbers with more zeroes than we can count. It feels distant, complicated, and frankly, like it belongs to a world completely separate from our daily grind of traffic, deadlines, and figuring out what’s for dinner. But what if that colossal document they’re debating isn’t just political noise? What if it’s actually the blueprint for your life for the next 365 days?

Stripped of all the jargon, the national budget is just our household budget on a massive scale. Think about how you manage your family’s income. You allocate money for essentials like groceries and electricity bills (social services), your child’s tuition and school projects (education), fixing that leaky roof (infrastructure), and maybe saving a little for emergencies (calamity funds). The process happening in Congress right now is exactly the same. They’re deciding how to spend the money we all chipped in through our taxes.

This isn’t some abstract economic exercise; its impact is woven into the very fabric of our daily lives. That agonizingly long queue you endured at the MRT this morning? The budget decides if we get new train cars or a better signaling system. The state of the public hospital your grandmother relies on? The budget determines if it can afford more doctors, nurses, and life-saving equipment.

The hope that your child is getting a quality education? It all hinges on whether the budget prioritizes building more classrooms, printing enough textbooks, and giving our teachers the salaries they deserve. The flood that submerged your street after a downpour wasn’t just bad weather; it was also a question of whether enough funds were allocated for proper drainage systems.

Watching the budget deliberations is our national version of checking the receipt. Imagine giving a family member the household money, and they come home with an expensive new gadget while the fridge is empty. You’d demand an explanation, right? It’s the same principle. When we pay attention, we get to ask the hard questions. We get to see if our hard-earned taxes — the money automatically deducted from our pay slips — are going toward building a better future for our communities or just funding someone’s pet project or another fleet of shiny new SUVs.

You don’t need a degree in economics to understand what’s at stake. You just need to ask one simple, powerful question of every item being debated: “How does this help my family and my community?” We can follow the work of journalists and civic groups that break down the numbers for us. We can use our voices online and in our communities to demand transparency and accountability.

The national budget isn’t their money; it’s our money. It’s our collective wallet, holding our collective hopes for a safer, healthier, and more prosperous life. It’s time we stop leaving the room when it’s being discussed. It’s time to pull up a chair, because when it comes to our future, we all deserve a say in how it gets funded.