Palace increases 'pork' by P700 million

MANILA, Philippines - The administration did not reduce the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel allocation for senators and congressmen, which actually increased by P700 million, contrary to the claim of Malacañang officials.

Research conducted by The STAR showed that last year, Malacañang proposed P6.24 billion for PDAF in the 2009 budget, the same level as in previous years.

During the Senate-House of Representatives conference on the budget, senators increased the PDAF appropriation by P3,425,027,000, to P9.665 billion.

President Arroyo did not veto the P3.425-billion increase in pork barrel funds when she signed the 2009 national budget.

Mrs. Arroyo has proposed in the 2010 national budget a PDAF allocation of P6.940 billion, which is P700 million more than what she proposed in previous years.

Congressmen sitting in the House appropriations committee surmised that the     additional P700 million would be for the 32 new party-list representatives the Supreme Court recently added to the chamber’s membership.

The PDAF is a more transparent form of the pork barrel and it is the source of funds for so-called “soft” projects like medical, livelihood and educational assistance.

Funds for “hard” projects are embedded in the budgets of infrastructure agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications, and Department of Agriculture (for farm-to-market roads and irrigation canals).

The pork barrel dispenses P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each House member.

Only opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson does not avail himself of his P200 million.

In the House, militant party-list members like Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna do not receive their allocations.

Last week, interviewed by radio station dzMM, former economic planning secretary Ralph Recto said pork barrel funds in the 2010 budget proposal have been reduced by as much as 50 percent to keep the budget deficit down.

“I’ve seen the numbers in the DBCC (Development Budget Coordinating Council), and I can tell you that these funds have been reduced to P100 million per senator and P40 million per congressman,” Recto said.

The economic planning secretary and the budget secretary sit in the DBCC.

Contacted for confirmation by the same radio station, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. confirmed that there have been reductions.

On the same day, Andaya issued a statement saying the PDAF has been slashed by more than P2 billion, from P9.666 billion to P6.940 billion.

“We’re cutting PDAF by almost 30 percent and we hope that this will meet the concurrence of Congress,”

His claim of reduction was based on the Congress-increased level of P9.666 billion.

The country has been incurring record levels of budget deficits under President Arroyo. The 2010 deficit is estimated at P233 billion. This year’s deficit is officially projected to reach P255 billion.

If pork barrel allocations were cut to P100 million per senator and P40 million per House member, the nation could save more than P10 billion.

Total allocations would be reduced from P18.8 billion to P10.7 billion for the 268-member House, and from P4.8 billion to P2.4 billion for the 24-member Senate, or from P23.6 billion to P13.1 billion for both chambers.

There have been findings by the Commission on Audit that many lawmakers misused their allocations and were lining their pockets with commissions and kickbacks from their projects.

During the Asian financial crisis, then Senate President Franklin Drilon and one or two other senators gave up half of their pork barrel funds. 

Palace cuts expenses

Malacañang said the government is cutting some of its major expenses next year, including the budget for advertisements, telephone bills and intelligence to give “budget room” for its increasing payroll costs and funding for social protection programs.

Budget Secretary Andaya said the government’s advertising budget sustained a hefty cut of P325 million or from P1.143 billion this year to P818 million next year under the P1.54-trillion national budget for 2010.

His disclosure came amid an ongoing Senate inquiry into the spending of some Cabinet officials, believed to be running in the 2010 elections, for advertisements that tend to promote themselves.

He said the online procurement of goods and services, which allows the posting of bid notices in the Internet, has reduced the volume of “invitation to bid” advertisements in newspapers.

The government is also reducing its communications expenses from P3.6 billion this year to P3.49 billion in 2010, Andaya said.

He said the reduction will come from lower postage and telegram expenses, and cuts on telephone use in various offices.

“But there will be a rise in Internet subscriptions,” Andaya said. “Broadband has replaced the snail mail.”

Utilities expense was also reduced as bills for water and power are forecast to go down by P320 million in 2010 or to P8.198 billion from this year’s P8.518 billion.

“I don’t know if this is due to the enercon (energy conservation) drive of the DOE (Department of Energy) because their energy police have always been doing the rounds of government buildings,” Andaya said.

He said the biggest cut in the government’s maintenance and operating budget will come from “supplies and materials,” which will shrink from P54.7 billion this year to P43.4 billion in 2010.

Under this category fall petroleum, oil and lubricants, and the so-called “common use” office supplies like paper, he said.

Andaya said “rents” of buildings and equipment will also be reduced by P4.18 billion or to P9.6 billion from P13.78 billion as well as that for “printing and binding” from P1.436 billion to P1.207 billion.

He said the budget for professional services such as janitorial and security, and those paid to consultants, will also be cut by more than a billion pesos, from P20.24 billion to P19.17 billion.

Confidential and intelligence expenses will also be reduced by P317 million, from the P1.524 billion authorized this year to P1.346 billion in 2010, Andaya said.

“We are preempting the predictable calls that this (confidential and intelligence) fund be reduced,” he said.

“While many items in the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) column of the proposed P1.541-trillion 2010 budget have been whittled down, overall MOOE will increase by almost P100 billion to P864 billion next year,” Andaya said.

He said this was largely due to the increase in interest payments, which will get P341 billion next year, Internal Revenue Allotment to local government units and other subsidies, P346 billion; and insurance premium and taxes, P39.96 billion. – With Paolo Romero