Palace, SC settle dispute over judiciary budget

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang maintained yesterday that it has forged a win-win solution to calls made by the judiciary to respect its fiscal autonomy in connection with the Palace-impounded P101.5-billion Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF).

Details of such agreement, however, have been left for Sen. Franklin Drilon, Senate finance committee chairman, and his counterpart in the House, Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, to explain.

The solution was arrived at upon consultation with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.

“Pardon me for not releasing the details, but there’s been an agreement already on fiscal autonomy and we appreciate the efforts of the House finance committee, that they recognized our efforts on transparency and accountability,” he told reporters.

Lacierda believes the agreement “will not be in conflict with the fiscal autonomy provisions of the Constitution.”

“We will leave the details of the agreement with either Cong. Abaya or Sen. Drilon. By the way, the House version of the budget contains those agreements and we will leave that with Cong. Abaya to explain,” he said.

What Lacierda only hinted at was that the compromise was consistent with the position taken by Drilon, where funds intended for unfilled positions in the judiciary and independent constitutional bodies must be respected.

“Essentially, we will respect the funds. But there are some provisions that were included so that there is a happy agreement between both branches of government and also the judiciary,” he said.

Last Thursday, Drilon conceded that constitutional bodies such as the judiciary enjoy fiscal autonomy and as such should have full control over all of its funds, even those intended for its unfilled positions.

In a forum at the Senate, Drilon echoed the sentiments of the leadership of the House of Representatives about giving back to the judiciary control over P2 billion for unfilled positions under the proposed P1.8-trillion national budget for 2012.

“We will adhere to the constitutional provision which grants fiscal autonomy to the constitutional bodies and at the same time provide for transparency in the budget. So that we will know through a reporting system how the budget allocated to each agency is being spent,” Drilon said.

“We will not impinge on the fiscal independence of the constitutional agencies but we maintain that as guardians of the purse, we have the right to require that such usage of the funds be made transparent,” he added.

During the initial hearings on the proposed 2012 national budget, Drilon supported the move of the executive branch to pool all of the funds of the various government agencies meant for unfilled positions into a new item called the MPBF.

The MPBF would be under the control of the Department of Budget and Management and so the various agencies would have to go through them to secure funding for hiring personnel.

According to the DBM, the MPBF was instituted in response to the abuses committed in the past by various agencies, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

During the investigation conducted by the Senate on the alleged corruption in the AFP, it was revealed that funds intended for unfilled positions were used for other purposes, including providing millions in sendoff money for retiring chiefs of staff.

Restrictions sought

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman proposed yesterday that Congress impose restrictions on the use of funds appropriated in the 2012 budget for unfilled positions in the bureaucracy.

He said the same limitations being proposed to be imposed on the judiciary should be followed by Malacañang in the use of such funds.

Otherwise, he said the unused portions of appropriations for salaries might be treated as savings and diverted to other expenses, for which they were not intended. – With Marvin Sy, Jess Diaz