Bicam OKs 2015 budget, supplement

MANILA, Philippines - The P2.606-trillion budget for next year hurdled the bicameral conference committee yesterday as the House of Representatives, voting 183-12 with no abstentions, also approved the proposed P22.5-billion supplemental budget.

The Senate ratified the budget program including special provisions barring the use of lump sum appropriations for farm-to-market roads by the Department of Agriculture.

Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Francis Escudero outlined the special provisions in a speech before the plenary yesterday on the joint explanation of the bicameral conference report on the 2015 national budget.

The special provision on the implementation of farm-to-market road projects provides that the list of FMR projects, with details on location, costs and status of implementation, be posted on the DA official website.

It, however, also authorized the DA secretary to realign allotment released from one project and/or scope of work to another within the same project category or implementing unit.

In accordance with the Supreme Court decision, Escudero said the bicam panel approved the Senate proposed amendments on savings, with some amendments from the House of Representatives.

Savings refer to portions or balances of any released appropriations which have not been obligated as a result of discontinuance or non-commencement of a program, activity or project (P/A/P) not due to the fault or negligence of the agency concerned.

Under the 2015 budget, heads of offices are also authorized to use savings in their respective appropriations to provide additional funding to cover actual deficiency incurred for the current year in any existing item of their respective appropriations.  

The lawmakers also provided provisions on reportorial requirements for each agency every quarter. Failure by heads of agencies to do so would warrant the filing of charges for violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and the Administrative Code of 1987.

As part of special provisions, the Senate also amended the Cash Allowance to Teachers by increasing the amount from P1,300 to P1,500 per school year.

For the Department of Foreign Affairs, the bicam also increased the legal assistance fund from P30 million to P100 million.

For the Department of Health, there was a special provision requiring hospitals to use at least 25 percent of their income to purchase and upgrade hospital equipment intended for the direct delivery of health services.

The lawmakers also included a provision on funding the benefits of senior citizen and barangay officials and workers under the National Health Insurance Program.

“To ensure that there is no duplication in the enrollees, the provision requires the release of cash allocation based on certified billing indicating the name of enrollees,” Escudero said.

Escudero said the bicam also agreed that the Special Vehicle Pollution Control fund under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) be tapped for the maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit.

It also barred realignment of funds for athletes under the Philippine Sports Commission.

In a bid to better utilize the Quick Relief Fund under the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund, the lawmakers also authorized the Department of Education, the DOH, the DPWH and the DOTC to procure insurance cover for repair and reconstruction of government buildings damaged by natural typhoons and disasters.  

Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing said the P50-billion budget for DOH was too low and showed the government’s lack of concern for the health of ordinary people.

“Is this how we take care of our people? Our health is connected to productivity and security,” Bagatsing said.

Prompt approval

The House voted to approve the supplemental budget on second and third and final readings in succession because President Aquino has certified it as urgent.

It will now transmit the measure to the Senate, which has until Friday to pass it. Congress goes on its month-long Christmas break this weekend.

There are 26 items of appropriation in the supplemental budget, but the House realigned the last item, which was for P715.4 million for the Supreme Court’s “enterprise information system” project, to avoid double funding.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, said the same amount for the same SC project has been included in the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget. 

The realigned funds were added to two items – payments for obligations arising from the implementation of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) project, which were increased from P1.849 billion to P1.903 billion; and temporary shelter assistance to victims of Typhoon Yolanda, which was augmented by more than P600 million, from P1.5 billion to P2.162 billion.

The PDAF project payments would be released to the DPWH, while the shelter assistance fund would be given to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Ungab said the P1.903-billion payments would be for projects completed before the Supreme Court struck down the PDAF as unconstitutional in November 2013. PDAF was the official name of the congressional pork barrel.

Thus, the allocation of payments does not go against the SC decision, Ungab said.

Aside from temporary shelter assistance fund, the DSWD will receive P1.942 billion for the “updating of the national household targeting system for poverty reduction.”

In plain language, this only means a survey on poverty, data which the DSWD should have gathered since the last years of the Arroyo administration when it started implementing the conditional cash transfers to the poor program, Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of party-list group Abakada said.

NHA budget biggest

The biggest item in the supplemental budget is P8 billion, to be released to the National Housing Authority (NHA) for permanent housing units for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

The amount is on top of the P13.4 billion the NHA has received, good for 46,000 houses. Of that amount, P11 billion was released last October and P2.4 billion in December 2013.

The NHA has reported that it has so far built only 1,595 houses.

The housing agency will get an additional P287 million for the relocation of squatters occupying its North Triangle property near Trinoma mall in Quezon City.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) will receive P2.833 billion from the supplemental budget for its “operational transformation plan.” – Paolo Romero