House panel OKs without scrutiny P20-B OP budget

MANILA, Philippines – The House appropriations committee yesterday endorsed without scrutiny the proposed P20-billion budget for next year of the Office of President (OP).

Upon motion of Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles voted to approve the funding for the OP.

Salceda presented the motion to endorse the OP outlay “without questions,” saying it was a show of courtesy to Duterte since it is the President’s “maiden budget.”

Heeding Salceda’s appeal, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said he had no questions to ask Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and other OP officials.

Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice wanted to ask questions but Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman prevailed upon him to forgo his questioning. The two belong to the other minority group in the House led by Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr.

Lagman said he too had questions about the OP budget, but that he would not ask them in the committee level following tradition of giving courtesy to the President’s office. “However, this tradition does not extend to the plenary,” he said.

Earlier, Lagman said Duterte’s first budget is the highest in the country’s history.

The last funding for the OP under former president Benigno Aquino III is this year’s P2.8 billion, half of which was presumably inherited by his successor.

The approval of the OP budget followed similar action taken by the Nograles committee on the proposed P428.6-million budget for the office of Vice President Leni Robredo for next year.

Before his committee endorsed Robredo’s funding, Nograles asked Maria Carmela Duterte, who heads the OVP local affairs and special projects division, if she was related to the President.

Duterte initially denied being a presidential relative. Nograles then asked her where her parents came from, to which she responded that they were from Maasin, Leyte.

“So you are related to the President,” he said, thus eliciting an admission from the OVP officer.

It was not clear why she denied being a Duterte relative. The President traces his roots to Leyte and Cebu.

Briefing congressmen on the OP budget, Medialdea said it was “based on priorities to achieve the administration’s goal of real change.”

His four-page briefer showed that the OP funding for 2017 will increase by more than P17 billion, or by 607 percent, compared to this year’s P2.8 billion.

Salaries will amount to P707 million, while maintenance and other operating expenses will reach P19.3 billion, of which P15.5 billion will be allocated for the country’s hosting next year of the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Of the P15.5 billion for the ASEAN event, P11.5 billion will be used by the President’s office, while P2 billion will go to the Department of the Interior and Local Government, P1.5 billion to the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), P749.6 million to the Department of Tourism and P177.7 million to the Department of Trade and Industry.

The P1.5 billion for ASEAN-related activities for PCOO is P300 million more than its P1.2-billion proposed budget.

The OP outlay also includes P7.6 billion for representation and entertainment expenses, P2.5 billion for intelligence information gathering, P2.1 billion for consultants, another P2.1 billion for travel, P2.3 billion for rent, and P1.3 billion for communication.

Erice said he wanted to ask what was the basis for the P15.5-billion ASEAN anniversary funding and why was it included in the OP budget.

He said last year’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit cost a lot less.

And yet, APEC is a much larger organization composed of 21 economies, including the United States, Australia and China, while ASEAN is made up of only 10 countries, he said.