New funds sought for military campaign

The chairman of the House ways and means committee advocated yesterday the enactment of a new tax measure to fund the military campaign in Mindanao.

"Congress should enact the tax amnesty bill. Collections from this measure would be sufficient to finance the government offensive in the South," Rep. Danilo Suarez (LAMP, Quezon) said.

He told the Friday Balitaan sa Rembrandt in Quezon City that he is against the plan of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Finance (DOF) to cut fund releases to state agencies by five percent to save money for the Mindanao campaign.

He said Congress had already trimmed the 2000 budgets of departments and other agencies so as not to bloat the projected deficit this year.

Reducing these appropriations further would mean sacrificing the services they deliver, he said.

He said instead of the planned across-the-board reduction, the tax amnesty bill should be enacted.

The bill had long ago been passed by the House. Suarez said the Senate has been sitting on it for one year now.

"Senators do not want to act on any new tax measure because many of them are seeking reelection," he said.

His Senate counterpart, Juan Ponce Enrile, is a reelectionist. Enrile is of the position that no new taxes should be imposed.

For his part, Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. (Lakas, Surigao del Sur) questioned the legality of the plan of the DBM and the DOF to impose a five percent budget cut.

"There is a legal question involved here. I don't think the two departments can do that, because the power to appropriate money belongs to Congress," he said.

He said reducing the state agencies' budgets and allocating the cuts for the Mindanao war are an act of appropriation.

"This is not to say that I am in favor of the tax proposal of Congressman Suarez," he added.