Lawmakers want P90 billion more for their infrastructure projects

MANILA, Philippines — The brewing firestorm at the House of Representatives over next year’s proposed P4.1-trillion national budget is apparently far from over.

A week after the withdrawal of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), House appropriations committee chairman and Davao City Third District Rep. Isidro Ungab yesterday revealed that about 70 congressmen have sought increases in the appropriations for public works projects in their respective districts.

Ungab bared that the lawmakers are asking for about P70 billion to P90 billion in total additional budget to be included in the proposed National Expenditure Program (NEP) for next year.

He added that they raised the concerns on the funds, which were either slashed during the preparation of the proposed budget or vetoed by the President in the 2019 budget, during the hearing on the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

But Ungab, who exposed the withdrawal of the GAB by Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Second District Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte upon the order of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, is not inclined to grant the request of his colleagues.

“I truly understand their sentiments because these are regular projects (not included in the budget). I sympathize with them, but the amount is too big,” Ungab told reporters in a chance interview.

“P70 to P90 billion – that’s too big an amount. It is very hard to put it now in the 2020 budget. We don’t know where to get that. If you get it from any department, it will really hurt the operations of the department,” Ungab stressed.

Ungab said he would appeal to the concerned lawmakers not to insist on the inclusion of their demand in the 2020 budget, suggesting that their request for additional budget should be addressed after approval of the NEP.

“The complaint of those congressmen whose projects were vetoed by the President last time and also those whose budget were slashed will be addressed at the proper time. But you cannot include that in the GAB, in this budget, because everything has already been itemized,” he explained.

“We cannot remove itemized expenditures to accommodate these requests,” the lawmaker pointed out.

Duterte had vetoed P95 billion that he tagged as irregular fund insertions by House members when he belatedly signed the P3.757-trillion budget for 2019 last April.

Ungab said they plan to meet with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the DPWH to settle the matter and “look for possible solutions and possible funding.”

Ungab hinted that the concerns of the lawmakers would “most likely be addressed by a supplemental budget.”

“We will study that possibility because the vetoed items remain as unappropriated items. So it is possible that we can tap it later. But I cannot say with a degree of certainty because it will all depend also with the executive department, if they will submit measures to cure the problem,” he said.

Ungab added that the issue must be resolved without disrupting the calendar of the House, which intends to pass the budget before going into its first recess on Oct. 5.

The lawmaker had earlier express fear that the withdrawal of the GAB could “open the floodgates of insertions.”

Cayetano, however, gave assurance that withdrawal of the GAB would not derail the House’s approval of the spending bill come early October.

“We assure the public that the budget will be scrutinized but will not be delayed and will be transparent. Pork and parking have no place in the 2020 budget,” he vowed.

‘Low proficient’ level

Despite the perennial prioritization of education programs by the government, the quality of basic education in the country remains low, Education Secretary Leonor Briones admitted yesterday as she asked for bigger allocation for next year during the House budget hearing.

Briones revealed that while the Department of Education (DepEd) had made significant strides in addressing lack of access to education, the basic and secondary education in the country remains in the “low proficient” level based on latest results of the National Achievement Test.

“The main challenge that we will address in the coming years will be the quality of education. Our large-scale assessment results show that our learners are in the ‘low proficient’ level as we anticipate this to be confirmed in international assessments such as the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) program for international student assessment,” she told lawmakers.

“Low proficient” is the second lowest level in the five-level gauge of proficiency of students that is equivalent to only 25 to 49 percentage points.

Briones explained that this is the reason the DepEd has shifted its focus to upgrade the quality of education in the programs for the second half of the Duterte administration.

Unfortunately, the DepEd’s proposed budget for 2020 was significantly cut by the DBM by some P350 billion.

The education chief said they asked for P803.13 billion, but DBM only recommended P550.89 billion for DepEd under the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year.

DepEd’s proposed budget for next year, if added to the proposed budget for state universities, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, amounts to P673 billion – the biggest allocation in the 2020 NEP.

This is P8 billion or 1.2 percent higher than the government’s P665.1-billion budget for education this year.

Still, Briones vowed to address the problem on the quality of education despite the cut in DepEd’s proposed budget.

She told lawmakers of her agency’s plan to review the curriculum in the K-12 program and improve the National Educators Academy of the Philippines.

Briones said the DepEd also plans to spend P8.9 billion for computerization program, P1.89 billion for human resource development, P2.7 billion for learning tools and equipment purchase, P963 million for purchase of textbooks and instructional materials and P1.2 billion for hiring of 10,000 new teachers next year.

She pointed out that programs to increase access to education would continue in 2020 with P36 billion allotted for basic education facilities and P19.9 billion for the construction of new school buildings.

“No one should be left behind. We continue to address the remaining access gaps in basic education, which should be more nuanced and responsive to the reasons why certain learners remain out of school,” she said.

Of the proposed DepEd budget for next year, P417 billion will go to personnel services or an increase of P13 billion or 3.25 percent compared with this year’s budget; P86.54 billion for maintenance and other operating expenses or an increase of P5 billion or 5.71 percent and P46.8 billion for capital outlay or an increase of P3 billion or 6.45 percent.