Before there was PAGBA, there was ABOEP.
ABOEP stands for the Association of Budget Officers and Examiners of the Philippines, an organization formed to bring together various organizations of men and women involved in and dedicated to budget management in the public service.
ABOEP itself was organized in response to the need for a social organization that would design budgetary outlays that were responsive to the needs of public service and thereby “conserve the faith of the people in their duly constituted government.”
On April 22, 1965, the constitution of the ABOEP was revised and PAGBA was formed in an attempt to further strengthen and broaden the structural framework of the organization, as well as bring about significant change in budget administration.
PAGBA’s first President, Silvestre Sarmiento, a CPA-lawyer who was then the Chief of the Budget Operations Service of the Budget Commission (the precursor of the present-day Department of Budget and Management), lost no time in incorporating the association and reorganizing its objectives into what is now the PAGBA Constitution and By-Laws. As then-President of PAGBA, Sarmiento also organized the association’s 2nd Convention at the Asian Labor Exchange Center in Quezon City. Since then, PAGBA’s annual conventions became the association’s traditional venue for updating government budget officers and personnel on the new budget policies and systems, and other government programs.