Senators must explain budget slash – Rolando Andaya

MANILA, Philippines — For shaving off P39 billion from the 2019 national budget and limiting funds for Build Build Build projects and state workers’ retirement benefits as a result, senators led by Vicente Sotto III need to do some explaining, Camarines Sur. Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.

“All he has to do is explain to the public why the Senate slashed the budget not only of Build Build Build projects, but also of pension for uniformed personnel and retirement benefits of government employees,” Andaya, chairman of the House appropriations committee, said.

He disclosed that P39 billion formed part of the total P83.6 billion the senators had “realigned.”

“Now is also the time for him (Sotto) to reveal the names of all senators who made budget cuts and show the items where these were realigned,” Andaya pointed out.

He said the P39-billion budget cut on the items listed in the “pension and gratuity fund” would definitely affect the pension of retirees of state workers especially those in the uniformed services.

He accused Sotto of resorting to “name calling and language engineering in a bid to divert public attention from the drastic budget cuts imposed by the Senate on the President’s major infrastructure projects and social programs.”

“The senators unilaterally decided on the budget cuts and realigned them to other items based on request of individual proponents. Up to now, the Senate has yet to make public a detailed report on the proponents who recommended the individual realignments,” he said.

While it’s now left for the President to decide on the P3.7-trillion budget bill, word war continues between Sotto and some House officials over realignments in the long-delayed appropriations measure.

Reacting to House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez’s calling him “delusional” for opposing the lower chamber’s realignments in the proposed budget, Sotto said his House detractors were running out of tricks to dissuade President Duterte from vetoing “illegal” realignments.

“How can I be considered delusional when they (House) are the ones inventing (allegations)?” Sotto said.

“As I’ve said, it’s their last ditch effort to influence the President in not vetoing their illegal realignments. They can invent all they want, we will correct everything once they are gone (from office),” he said.

On Monday, Sotto said colleagues of Andaya were fully aware of the huge realignments he and other House leaders made in the General Appropriations Bill.

He expressed confidence Duterte would make the necessary line item vetoes in the budget.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Monday said all the cuts he made in the GAB were necessary to prevent possible wastage of funds.

He said when he pushed for the P75-billion cut in the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), he was reacting to the agency’s admission that it was not prepared to implement the projects the amount was supposed to fund.

He said he had also sought the slashing of P20 billion from the right-of-way funding upon the request of the DPWH itself while the P16-billion cut in assistance to the local governments was made because the Department of the Interior and Local Government was also not aware that it was given such funds.

“I found out that at least P23 billion was realigned at the initiative of a number of my colleagues,” Lacson said.

Other realignments were used to augment the much-depleted Health Facilities Enhancement Fund, the activation of the Army’s 11th Infantry Division, adjustments or the purchase of medicines by the Veterans Memorial Medical Center due to the increase in the price index of medicines, and other institutional amendments, he said.

He said he did not sign the bicameral conference committee report on the GAB and dissented to it when it was presented on the floor for ratification.

Line veto power

Budget watchdog Social Watch Philippines (SWP) voiced support for the Senate position that President Duterte should “remove unconstitutional provisions and all forms of pork barrel allocations in the proposed P3.757-trillion 2019 budget.”

The group said the President should use his line-veto power to rid the budget bill of “all the suspected unlawful amendments.”

“This will erase any and all doubts that pork barrel has made its way into the 2019 budget,” it said.

SWP noted that Sotto signed the bill on Tuesday with “strong reservations” due to “unconstitutional provisions.”

The group acknowledged that while Congress has the power to make changes in the proposed budget, “these should be accounted for through public disclosure of a list of new or modified programs or projects and duly announced on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate.”

“The reality, however, is that no House member has come forward to convey the details of his or her revisions formally and on record,” it said.

Despite repeated promises, the House leadership has not released the list of revised congressional district allocations.

SWP stressed that the post-budget ratification changes the House made “may have violated Article VI, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution, which explicitly provides that, ‘Upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereto shall be allowed’.”

It also invoked the rules of the House, which provide that when the “conference committee report is submitted for consideration/approval by both houses, no amendment is allowed.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) is seeking an exemption from the election ban on deployment of personnel in connection with the May 13 midterm polls.

In a statement, the DOH said it has to dispatch health workers soon as part of the implementation of the Universal Health Care program under the department’s Human Resource for Health program.

“As a matter of urgency, we requested Comelec (Commission on Elections) for an exemption from the election ban policy for our health workers, in case the General Appropriations Act (GAA) is signed during the election period,” the agency noted.

According to DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo, they will continuously deploy some 26,000 workers for 2019 “once the budget is approved and available.”

The DOH had already instructed all its regional offices to release the names of health workers for deployment.

The agency added that regional offices have also been instructed to “ensure efficient processing of deployment once GAA is signed.”

Under the Omnibus Election Code, appointment or hiring of new employees is banned 45 days before a regular election. The ban began last March 29. With Jess Diaz, Jess Diaz, Sheila Crisostomo