Senate, House deadlocked on budget over P8.3-B ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines – The House-Senate conference on the proposed P3.35-trillion 2017 national budget has hit a deadlock over P8.3 billion in funds that Sen. Panfilo Lacson considers part of the congressional pork barrel.

With just three session days before Congress goes on its month-long Christmas break, the approval of President Duterte’s first budget proposal is in peril unless the bicameral panel resolves its impasse this weekend.

The two chambers are scheduled to start their Christmas break next Thursday.

The P8.3 billion was part of the P40.6-billion funding President Duterte had proposed for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It was intended for various infrastructure projects.

In its version of the 2017 budget, the House transferred the P8.3 billion to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) upon representations made by members from the autonomous Muslim region.

The ARMM appropriation was thus reduced from P40.6 billion to P32.3 billion.

The Senate, in its version, returned the P8.3 billion to the ARMM upon the initiative of Lacson, who heads a subcommittee handling the Muslim region’s budget.

Emerging from the caucus held during yesterday’s plenary session, Lacson revealed that it was agreed that the P8.3 billion would be reallocated to the state universities and colleges to finance the tuition of poor but deserving students.

During the meeting of the conference committee on Wednesday afternoon, the House contingent led by appropriations committee chairman Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao City insisted on keeping the amount with the DPWH.

But Lacson, who is out to rid the budget of “pork,” would not budge, even after Nograles sought the help of ARMM lawmakers, who met with the senator later that day.

Lacson described the appropriation as similar to the pork barrel of the past, wherein legislators were given a certain amount of funds for whatever projects they want to undertake.

He said having the DPWH implement the projects would be a violation of the Organic Act of the ARMM.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on finance and co-chair of the bicameral meetings, said the Senate panel has met with ARMM congressmen and that a caucus would be held to resolve the issue.

Legarda said two possible options would be considered to break the stalemate: either to use the P8.3 billion to augment the budget of the Commission on Higher Education for scholarships to state universities and colleges, which would also benefit the ARMM, or leave the funds with the ARMM and introduce a special provision to address the legal issues based on the Organic Act.

Lacson said he intends to hold his ground on the issue because it would be illegal to have the DPWH implement the projects within the ARMM.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that the pork barrel is unconstitutional. These representatives, not only in ARMM but anywhere else, should not intervene. They can realign, they can amend, but to reallocate the funds with their own districts is illegal,” Lacson said.

He said that the reason given by the House about the problem with the absorptive capacity of the ARMM is not acceptable, considering the agency they want to implement the projects has serious problems in this aspect.

Based on 2015 data, Lacson noted the DPWH was not able to spend some P115 billion in funds allocated to them.

Apart from the P8.3 billion, Lacson said he also found another P3.6 billion in the DPWH’s proposed budget for 2017 that was also lodged within the budget of the ARMM.

“So if we count eight legislative districts of the ARMM, if you have P8.3 billion plus P3.6 billion, how much would that be for each congressman? Easily that’s P1.45 billion,” he said.

Legarda said that she is looking at having the bicameral conference report ratified in plenary by Monday or Tuesday next week, right before Congress adjourns for Christmas break.

House sources said Muslim lawmakers want their infrastructure funds with the DPWH so they would have more say in project implementation.

However, under the Supreme Court decision declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) unconstitutional, senators and congressmen are prohibited from interfering with the implementation of projects after they have approved the annual budget.

PDAF was the official name of the congressional pork barrel.

The autonomous Muslim region is composed of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, which have one congressional district each, and Maguindanao, Sulu and Lanao del Sur, which have two districts each.

Thus, the eight districts would have an average of a little over P1 billion from the P8.3 billion that is at the center of the bicameral conference stalemate.