‘Nothing wrong with pork’

Malacañang sees nothing wrong with lawmakers fully restoring their pork barrel allocations even as it chided some senators for being hypocritical about their own congressional allocations.

Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor also called on senators and congressmen to restore the P8-billion Kalayaan Barangay program and Kilos Asenso Support Fund, two of the administration’s new initiatives seen by skeptical lawmakers as President Arroyo’s personal pork barrel.

"I don’t think (the pork barrel) allocations were really ever taken out and there seems to be nothing wrong with that," Defensor told reporters.

"The Constitution gives the power of the purse to Congress because they also determine the needs of their districts and constituencies so they’re the ones given the power to allocate," he added.

Defensor said the government’s increased revenues should be plowed back to the poor through the allocations as well as appropriations to government agencies and programs being pushed by Malacañang.

He said there are enough safeguards and monitoring by constituents and critics to check on the proper use of pork allocations by congressmen.

Defensor pointed out that the congressional allocations, formally known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), are not personally handled by the senators or congressmen but are earmarked for identified projects that must be approved by the Department of Budget and Management to prevent arbitrary and wasteful appropriations by lawmakers.

The actual amount handled by congressmen should only amount to P12 million while senators have larger allocations, he said.

Without naming names, Defensor said some senators have been making noises about the PDAF and announcing that they planned to reject their own congressional allocations, but in the end these senators would be among the first to disburse the funds.

"If the senators are those who are getting allocations, no problem, except the senators who are saying they will not get their pork, yet still use it — that’s the height of hypocrisy," he said.

He called it "double speak" for senators to say "they don’t want it and then allocating (the PDAF), on the other hand."

Defensor said it was also unfair to accuse Mrs. Arroyo of trying to collect her own pork barrel as all the proposed appropriations were aimed at funding needed government programs.

He said if critics’ logic were to be followed, the entire P1.053-trillion proposed budget was the President’s pork barrel.

"All these vital programs would have to be given appropriations, that’s why the proposal comes from the executive branch," Defensor said.

‘Mother of all pork barrels’

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago asked the Senate to slash what she described as the "mother of all pork barrels" under the budget of the Office of the President.

She moved for deletion of the entire P30.5 billion allocated for "support to infrastructure projects and social programs" from the 2006 budget in the wake of calls for members of Congress to give up their pork barrels.

Santiago said the P30.5 billion is part of the P57.105-billion budget under the heading of an "Unprogrammed Fund," which was not altered by the Senate when it scrutinized the 2006 budget bill, and early on was approved by the House of Representatives in its own version of the budget bill.

The "unprogrammed fund" is different from the so-called Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund and Kilos Asenso Support Fund, equivalent to P3 billion and P3.592 billion, respectively, which were slashed by the Senate in its version of the 2006 budget bill.

Yesterday, Santiago provided Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Manuel Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, with copies of her proposed amendments to the 2006 budget.

The senators held a caucus last night to discuss their final say and proposed amendments to the 2006 budget.

Santiago said the unprogrammed funds are allocations "under the discretion of the executive" branch.

She also moved to "restore" the Senate’s budget of P1.36 billion as originally proposed by the President and sought a reduction of the House budget to P2.841 billion.

In calling for the reduction of the P57.1-billion unprogrammed funds, Santiago also called for the budget on pensions and separation benefits to be increased to P15 billion.

A breakdown of the unprogrammed funds showed that P8.1 billion was allocated for budgetary support to government-owned and controlled corporations; P2 billion was for strategic government reforms;, P8 billion was for support to foreign-assisted projects; P3.5 billion for general fund adjustments; P30.5 billion for support to infrastructure projects and social programs; and P5 billion for gratuities, pensions and separation benefits.

A quick look at the special provisions under the so-called unprogrammed funds showed that the amounts "shall be released only when the revenue collections exceed the original revenue targets submitted by the President to Congress."

Santiago also reiterated her earlier move to abolish the Visiting Forces Agreement Commission (VFACOM) by proposing only a P1,000 annual budget for the agency, instead of P2 million earlier recommended by the Department of Budget and Management.

She said VFACOM duplicates the function of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA (LOVFA), which she co-chairs.

Santiago also objected to the P559.7-million proposed budget for the Office of the Defense Secretary for this year. She said the defense secretary should stick to the P316.455-million budget proposed by the Office of the President.

The Department of National Defense has a total budget of P46.642 billion for 2006, which increased slightly compared to its 2005 budget of P46.036 billion.

Santiago also noted the difference in the House and Senate versions of the 2006 budget bill, saying the "quantum jump in the House version is unconstitutional."

Ready for ‘face-off’

As this developed, Sen. Manuel Villar, who chairs the Senate committee on finance, declared yesterday that the Senate was ready for a "face-off" with the House to defend its version of the P1.053-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2006.

Without batting an eye when asked about the P7.1-billion pork barrel set aside for over 200 congressmen and 23 senators, Villar said the Senate was close to finalizing their amendments to the proposed 2006 national budget in a caucus.

"The senators will have a final look at all the amendments that we have made on the House-approved version of the budget. Only after discussing everything can we finalize the final form of the Senate version of the 2006 national budget," Villar said.

He added that the budget deliberations are running "smoothly" with no major glitches, and that "we would definitely have the bicameral conference next week before the adjournment sine die" on June 9.

The Senate took a day off from budget deliberations yesterday to tackle the anti-terrorism bill, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and an inquiry into the alleged illegal arrest and detention of five supporters of former President Joseph Estrada.

Due to the delayed transmittal of the 2006 budget by the House to the Senate, the senators were given only four weeks to pass the budget. It took the House of Representatives over eight months — from Aug. 24, 2005 to April 5, 2006 — to approve the budget, Villar noted.

Villar preferred not to comment on how next week’s bicameral conference will proceed.

"The bicam can take as short as one day or as long as a year, it all depends on the parties involved in the discussion," he said.

Villar said the Senate must pass its version of the budget bill by Friday or "the (2005) budget would definitely be reenacted" because the bicameral conference committee debates would take at least a week to complete.

Congress has to pass the final version of the budget bill by June 9 or have the 2005 budget reenacted for the rest of the year.

Villar pointed out that there is a huge disparity between the Senate and House versions so he expects fierce debates during the bicameral conference.

The Senate version of the budget bill has deleted several items: the Kilos Asenso Support Fund, P3 billion; Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund, P3.69 billion; Compensation Adjustment Fund, P13.1 billion; the incentive package for employees availing of the government’s rationalization program under the pension and gratuity fund, P10 billion; and the entire budget of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, P65.53 million.

The Senate also wants to cut P2.72 billion from the budget of the Department of Transportation and Communications.

On the other hand, the Senate version increased funding to several agencies. These included the Department of Health budget, which increased by P350 million; the Commission on Higher Education, by P100 million; University of the Philippines, by P100 million; and Agriculture of Fisheries Modernization Program for the Young Farmers Program, by P50 million.

The proposed P1.053-trillion budget for 2006 is the highest in the history of the country and provides for increases in the allowances of government employees and infrastructure spending. — With Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy