Budget chief says Estrada may veto P10-B cut in IRA

President Estrada may veto the P10-billion internal revenue allotment (IRA) in this year's proposed budget, Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno said yesterday.

Diokno has asked the Department of Justice and the Office of the President's legal staff whether it was legal or not for Congress to slash the proposed P122-billion IRA by P10 billion.

Offhand, he said the Chief Executive would violate the Constitution and the Local Government Code if he approves the P10-billion IRA even if it is being transferred to unprogrammed items in the budget, meaning the amount is to be released only when revenues are available.

"We are not above the law," he said during an interview on dzMM yesterday. "We have to follow the law. The Department of Justice can only give the opinion, but it is really the courts which will decide."

He said the executive department has yet to receive a copy of the final version of the proposed 2000 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Although the bicameral conference committee had approved the GAA last week, initial reports reaching Diokno show the P10 billion IRA would be a "major issue."

"This to me is the major issue, the legality of withholding the P10 billion," he said. "This is the biggest issue in this proposal and we have asked for the legal opinion of the Department of Justice and the Office of the President."

The budget secretary added that though a copy of the GAA is not yet with his department, "as soon as we get it, we will review it page by page, line by line."

Under the Constitution, the President has the power to veto line items in the proposed budget.

Diokno said President Estrada and the Cabinet will review the proposed 2000 budget as soon as the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved its reduction to P629 billion by the bicameral conference committee.

"We will go through it (budget bill), the Cabinet included, it will probably take us a few days...And I don't think it (enactment of budget) will reach second week of February," he said.

Diokno noted that while his department has no objection to the P22 billion cut, they still have to know the specifics of the P629-billion budget for this year to "see if what was replaced is an improvement (and) is consistent with the priorities of the Estrada administration."

He said the IRA cut will hamper the delivery of basic services in the local government level, and may affect the people's satisfaction in the performance of President Estrada.

"The LGUs are our first line of defense," he said. "That is also one of the considerations in evaluating whether we will allow that P10 billion cut."

Based on media reports, Diokno learned that a total of P22 billion had been removed from the President's proposed budget of P651 billion, reducing it to P629 billion.

As far as he knows, he said the real cuts in the IRA were P7 billion, while the "conditional" or unprogrammed cuts were P5 billion which can only be released after the executive department has collected the revenues.

Diokno said the bicameral committee had reduced the IRA to P10 billion which is lower than the P30 billion that the Senate had originally proposed.

Earlier, local government officials led by Laguna Gov, Jose Lina, president of the League of Governors of the Philippines, had threatened to question before the Supreme Court the planned cuts on the IRA, he added.

"Actually, they (legislators) said the principle here was burden sharing," he said.

"It is a big thing if the LGUs really go to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court orders it (IRA) should not be cut, it should automatically be appropriated like the debt service."

Diokno said 40 percent of internal revenue collections for the past three years would be automatically released to local governments once the Supreme Court rules that the IRA should not be reduced.

"If the Supreme Court decides that way, we will no longer include it (in the GAA)," he said.

"In other words we will look at the Local Government Code as the spending authority in the same way that debt service (is recognized) by attribution. But we don't include it (debt service) in the new General Appropriations Act, but we still pay it."

He said the national government will "bridge" the P10 billion IRA if the Supreme Court upholds the IRA cut in case the projected revenue collections do not materialize later this year. "We are already studying this," he said.

In Bacolod City, Sen. John Osmeña has lashed out at Lina for saying that Congress has cut the IRA, describing it as "a malicious representation" on the governor's part.

He said legislators were merely suggesting a deferment in the release of funds and denied that the Senate had reduced the IRA for the delivery of basic services for local governments.

Osmeña said Lina, also president of the Union of League of Authorities in the Philippines, is using the issue as a publicity stunt to boost his campaign for the Senate next year.

"He does not want to go to court," he said. "What he wants is the publicity for his senatorial campaign. The governor has been questioning the legality of the Senate action on the budget before the media instead of going to the proper venue." -