Estrada to sign budget bill but won't touch 'pork'

President Estrada is scheduled to sign on Monday the Congress-approved P629-billion budget for this year, and indications are that the congressional pork barrel will be left intact.

House Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas (LAMP, Cebu) told reporters yesterday that Malacañang has already informed leaders of the two chambers of Congress of the signing schedule for the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2000.

The President denied that he would veto a P42-billion allocation considered by many as congressional pork barrel.

Speaker Manuel Villar insisted that the P42 billion is not pork barrel but part of the regular budget for agriculture.

Gullas said the President informed him that several special provisions in the appropriations bill will be vetoed. These include provisions requiring agencies to consult with congressmen prior to the implementation of certain projects, particularly those funded by the congressional pork barrel.

Senate President Pro Tempore John Osmeña said yesterday the Senate will accept the veto.

Gullas said his party boss felt that the requirement amounts to encroachment on executive functions, particularly if the funds are earmarked for education and public works projects.

"But I told him that there's nothing new there. We did not craft those provisions. They have always been in the annual budget laws since the post-martial law Congress," Gullas said.

He added that Mr. Estrada himself recognizes the need for lawmakers to be involved in the identification of projects in their respective districts.

Previously, senators and congressmen could merely identify the projects sought to be funded. In the 2000 GAA, however, lawmakers went a step further by making their prior approval a requisite for the release of funds.

Osmeña, also the chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the Senate panel to the bicameral conference committee had previous doubts on the legality of the House proposal for the lawmakers' imprimatur.

But an opposition congressman accused Malacañang officials of suffering from amnesia on the projected veto.

"That congressmen must be consulted in their districts is a principle that has been enshrined in previous budget laws. It is perhaps a case of amnesia that the Palace is now allergic to a phrase of which it is the rightful author," said Rep. Michael Defensor (LP, Quezon City).

He said because the Palace-proposed budget was laden with lump-sum appropriations, the House and the Senate had to "attach the (consultation) provision to every lump sum to require agencies to consult Congress on the fund's disposition."

Without this requirement, the budget would be a big pork barrel for the President, he said.

Another House leader said the consultation provision was written even in the Palace version of the 2000 budget which the President submitted to Congress in July.

"What are they talking about that this is new? In the version presented by (Budget) Secretary Ben Diokno, it is there," the lawmaker, who did not want to be identified, said.

To prove his assertion, he showed reporters the pertinent section on page 1526 of the Palace-drafted budget. The section, one of similar provisions written in the other parts of the outlay, calls for consultation with congressmen in the implementation of the school building program.

In a related development, Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. told radio station dzRH that the so-called pork barrel funds of members of Congress "are used for projects which are included in the priorities of the administration.

"Before, a congressman could point to anything he wanted to fund. Now, the system is different. Our projects must be among the administration's priorities," he said.

He said under a previous agreement with the President, lawmakers are allowed only to identify projects.

"The job of implementing these belongs to executive agencies," he added.

Villar defended the allocation of pork barrel funds, saying it assures all districts, including those in remote provinces, of their "fair share of national resources."

Villar insisted that there was no P42-billion pork barrel allocation in the P629-billion national budget which Congress will submit to the President tomorrow.

Speaking at the Bulung-Pulungan sa Westin forum, Villar said the P42-billion alleged pork barrel funds were nothing but part of the regular budget. He denied that congressmen inserted these funds for their own use.

"There is no such thing as a P42 billion pork barrel. This is part of the regular budget for agriculture," he said.

Villar noted that those who called the funds as pork barrel did so because of the provision which requires local executives to consult with lawmakers in the use of the funds.

But he said lawmakers will only be consulted but will never have a hand on how the money will be spent.

Members of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks and the Union of Local Authorities claimed that the P41.9 billion funds set aside from projects to be consulted with congressmen came from the P10 billion cut in the internal revenue allotment of local government units.

They argued that the funds were nothing but pork barrel allocations since their disbursement requires "prior concurrence" and "prior consultations" with members of Congress.

And they also said that giving congressmen the power to concur or be consulted on the release of funds from the national treasury violates the Constitution.

Villar stressed, though, that consulting with lawmakers on the use of certain funds is not illegal nor immoral.

"There is nothing wrong with government officials consulting with one another. We allot these funds for projects of the executive department and congressmen will not have anything to do with these projects," he said.

The speaker added that Congress only wanted to ensure that the funds will be equally divided among all the regions. "We just want equal distribution among all regions that's why there is consultation.

"In the past, the poorest 20 provinces are always behind when it comes to fund allocations and we don't want that to happen again," he pointed out.

The President denied yesterday that he would veto the P42-billion allocation.

"They cannot be considered as pork barrel because the congressmen cannot get these. They will just identify the projects which are in line with my program --irrigation, school building, housing, farm-to-market roads. I will not approve them unless they are under these categories," he said.

Meanwhile, Villar expressed grief yesterday over the P2.5-billion reduction in the education budget which resulted in cuts in the allocation of state colleges and universities, particularly that of the University of the Philippines (UP) where he studied.

"We fought hard for a no-cut budget," he said, adding that arguments over allocations for government universities were fierce.

He admitted, however, that in the end the plight of those studying in lesser-known government schools in Metro Manila and in the provinces was considered.

"UP students receive the biggest support from the government while those in PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) or the provinces get the least. How can you ignore that? We had to cut UP's budget to be able to add something to the budget of other schools," he explained.

Meanwhile, Kabataan ng Masang Pilipino national chairman and presidential son Joseph Victor Ejercito urged the President to work for the restoration of a reported P2.5 billion cut in the education budget for the year 2000.

"We need to restore the sum slashed by Congress to save at least 50,000 students from having to study in the scorching sun and health-threatening rain," Ejercito said.

Ejercito was reacting to news reports that Congress had passed the year 2000 budget minus P2.5 billion targeted for the Department of Education, Culture and Sports.

He urged the President to veto the budget and send it back to Congress to restore the P2.5 billion and other reductions which the President may find unacceptable.

Ejercito also urged colleges and universities not to push through a plan to increase tuition next school year, saying this will hurt parents and guardians financially. The move could help throw thousands of students out of school, he warned.

He also called on the President to consider using the presidential discretionary fund to cover the outlay excised by the legislature.