Proposed Palace budget for 2015 lower by P223 M

MANILA, Philippines - The appropriations committee of the House of Representatives has endorsed a 2015 budget for President Aquino that is P223 million lower than this year’s funding.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, committee chairman, said yesterday Aquino himself proposed the reduction in the funding requirement for the Office of the President.

“We have to respect the President’s decision, though we have the power to restore the reduction and return the funding level for his office to what it is this year,” he said.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. told the Ungab committee Tuesday night that the OP budget would go down by eight percent from P2.791 billion this year to P2.568 billion in 2015.

Ochoa said provisions for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) would decrease from P1.998 billion to P1.911 billion or by P87 million, while capital (equipment) outlay would fall from P183.4 million to just P20 million, or by P163.4 million.

“The OP will have lower MOOE because of cost-saving measures like bulk procurement of supplies,” he said.

He said funding for salaries would go up by P28 million to P639.9 million due to increased personnel benefits.

According to a Commission on Audit report on salaries and allowances received by bureaucrats, the OP has scores of Cabinet-level officials, undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who were paid from P1.3 million to P1.8 million in 2013.

The highest-paid were Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Political Affairs Adviser Ronald Llamas, who received more than P1.8 million each.

Ochoa earned P1.780 million, which was slightly higher than presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda’s P1.761 million.

Llamas has remained with the OP despite being linked to a string of controversies, including his purchase of fake DVDs and the arrest of his driver and bodyguard for illegally carrying his AK-47 assault rifle.