Congress keeps Palace savings in 2015 budget

MANILA, Philippines - The two chambers of Congress have kept the Malacañang-proposed new definition of savings in their conference committee version of the 2015 national budget, former national treasurer Leonor Briones said yesterday.

She said under the conference committee version, savings “have still been redefined and can be declared at any time of the year by the executive (branch or the Palace).”

She said the phrase “at any time” in the Palace proposal was removed but the definition was reworded to refer to savings as “portions or balances or any released appropriations which have not been obligated… during the validity of the appropriations.”

“Since the appropriations are valid from day one of next year until it ends, the intention to declare savings any time of the year is still present,” she added.

“The declaration of savings on a non-definite timeframe provided the mechanism for the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the redefinition effectively eliminates Congress’ vaunted ‘power of the purse”,” she stressed.

“This leeway would give DAP ‘legitimacy,’ despite the Supreme Court ruling on its unconstitutionality,” she said. “This touches issues on the balance of power between the executive and the legislative, since portions of the DAP were essentially pork barrel for legislators, not much different from the likewise SC-declared unconstitutional Priority Development Acceleration Fund (PDAF),” she added.

“The 2015 budget cannot reasonably be said to be ‘pork-less’ or ‘DAP-less’,” Briones said.

Senate finance committee chairman Francis Escudero has defended the conference committee’s definition of savings.

He said the definition allows the President, Senate president, Speaker of the House of Representatives, chief justice and heads of independent constitutional commissions to declare funds as savings under any of four conditions, like when contract costs are lower than appropriations and when a calamity forecloses the implementation of a project.

He said savings could be used the moment they are realized.

He cited as an example the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which he said has been doing bidding preparations and would be ready to award contracts on Jan. 1, 2015.

“If they are able to save P1 million from a project with an appropriation of P10 million, that P1 million is already available in January. They could already realign that to another project with the approval of the President. They don’t have to wait until the end of next year,” Escudero said.

He said if a calamity or disaster has prevented an agency from implementing a project, program or activity, the funds could be realigned.

It would be impractical to wait until yearend to use money saved under these circumstances, he said.

He pointed out that Congress would not be violating the SC ruling on DAP if it allows the use of savings as they are realized.