Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Palace could hold backroom negotiations with lawmakers to restore the MTRCB’s P31.9 million budget.
"Something can be done about it," Ermita said, noting that the proposed budget for 2007 would still go through the Senate and the bicameral conference committee anyway.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the P1 budget was not as bad as zero, pointing out that his department could augment it.
"The agency should still be thankful because I can augment the budget. That is in the Constitution. The legislators know that. If it’s zero, there’s no way to augment that," Andaya said.
"It’s more of a statement on the part of the legislators. If we have savings we will augment the budget. How can it pay its employees without a budget?" Andaya asked.
Detained former President Joseph Estrada appealed yesterday for the restoration of the MTRCB’s outlay, even after it was his allies in the House that successfully slashed the agency’s budget to P1 for giving an X-rating to the ousted leader’s film biography.
The House gave the MTRCB a 2007 budget of P1 on the motion of Minority Leader Francis Escudero, who questioned the body’s X-rating on "Ang Mabuhay Para sa Masa (To Live for the Masses)" that barred it from public viewing.
In a statement relayed by his lawyer former immigration commissioner Rufus Rodriguez, Estrada said a P1 budget would greatly affect employees of the MTRCB, who he said, are the ordinary folk to whom his film is dedicated.
"I appeal to Congress to restore the MTRCB’s budget for no other reason than to spare its employees from any hardships that are a direct result of the failure of its leadership to apply the law fairly and without thought for political expediency," Estrada said.
Estrada said the MTRCB rank-and-file are not to blame for the agency’s decision to ban his documentary. Rather, he said its officials should be penalized accordingly for their grave abuse of authority and "blatant suppression of that most basic of human rights — freedom of expression." — Aurea Calica, Perseus Echeminada