House to prioritize P20-B rehab fund in 2014 budget amendment

MANILA, Philippines - Amending the proposed P2.268-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2014 to include a P20-billion rehabilitation fund for provinces devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda and other recent calamities tops the agenda of lawmakers as Congress resumes session tomorrow, leaders of the House of Representatives said yesterday.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the matter would be discussed during the bicameral conference committee meeting on the national budget, possibly before the end of the month.

“We decided to take the initiative to create that rehabilitation fund and we will see to it that it is in the 2014 national budget, we will not leave the bicameral conference committee without the (rehabilitation) plan there,” Belmonte told reporters.

“The rehabilitation program should be a minimum of P10 billion, but our own version would like it to hit at least P20 billion,” he said.

The House is also expected to deliberate on a resolution filed by the so-called independent bloc, led by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, authorizing the use of P30 billion from the unspent portion of the P267-billion Special Purpose Fund, and from the P117-billion unprogrammed funds in the 2013 GAA for relief operations, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of calamity-hit areas.

The House earlier approved the proposed GAA. Once passed in the Senate, the GAA will undergo scrutiny by the bicameral conference committee, which will reconcile any conflicting provisions in the two versions of the measure.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, and House Deputy Majority Leader Sherwin Tugna – in separate interviews – said several lawmakers from disaster-hit provinces have requested that they be included in the bicameral conference committee so they can make sure the proposed rehabilitation fund is inserted.

Tugna said it was also possible that House members whose provinces were hit by calamities would address the bicameral panel to request that no downsizing be made on the figure.

“I think nothing legally prevents them to act as sort of resource persons for the bicameral conference committee,” Tugna told The STAR.

Ungab said the House contingent in the bicameral panel is almost always members of the appropriations committee and they are thus familiar with the proposed national budget.

He said Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, whose province had been heavily devastated by Yolanda, would be part of the bicameral deliberations as he is also vice chairman of the House appropriations committee.

“All House members are aware of what happened, the calamities that hit our country in the past several months, so we’ll defend our position and work on a P20-billion rehabilitation fund,” Ungab said.

He said among other possible items on the agenda of the bicameral meeting is the proposal to increase the Calamity Fund, which stands at over P7 billion in the proposed GAA.

Last week, Belmonte and other congressional leaders filed House Resolution No. 7 authorizing the executive branch to realign the unreleased balance of the 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund amounting to P12 billion to the Calamity Fund.

They also filed House Resolution 446 deducting P10,000 from the salary of each lawmaker and donating the amount to typhoon victims.