Senate budget debates on; House realigns ‘pork’ to typhoon aid

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate will start plenary debates on the proposed P2.268-trillion national budget for 2014 tomorrow.

Senate committee on finance chairman Francis Escudero is scheduled to deliver his sponsorship speech on committee report number 5 tomorrow morning. The interpolations will be held in the afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that daylong sessions to tackle the budget will run from Monday to Thursday every week until it is approved on third and final reading.

“A majority of the senators think that the time to approve the budget is already too tight,” he said.

A caucus among the senators was held at the start of yesterday’s session, and a majority wanted to push through with the schedule for plenary debates on the budget.

As a compromise, the senators agreed that the proposed budgets of the agencies involved in the relief operations be taken up later so that they could perform their duties continuously.

Among the agencies that would not be called to appear before the Senate in the meantime are the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Health, Office of the President, and the Department of National Defense.

The committee report will reflect the positions of the 24 senators on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

No common position was taken on what to do with the PDAF so the committee report would reflect the individual positions of the senators.

A total of 15 senators took the position to forgo their PDAF and to delete the corresponding amounts from the proposed P2.268-trillion national budget.

These are Senate President Franklin Drilon, Escudero, Aquilino Pimentel III, Loren Legarda, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Sergio Osmeña III, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Cynthia Villar, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Juan Edgardo Angara, Teofisto Guingona III, Gregorio Honasan II, Vicente Sotto III, and Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile.

Seven senators agreed to forgo their PDAF and to realign these to other items in the national budget:  Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Pia Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV, Lito Lapid, Miriam Defensor Santiago and Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.

Of the seven, the two Cayetanos, Ejercito, Santiago and Recto wanted to realign the PDAF to the calamity fund.

Lapid indicated that he would retain the realignment made by the House of Representatives to four government agencies.

Trillanes said that he wanted his PDAF to go to state universities and colleges, government hospitals and the construction of barracks for soldiers.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. failed to submit their positions at the time the committee report was signed and filed by Escudero.

The committee report is also expected to reflect a new item called the rehabilitation fund for the areas hit by various calamities this year.

House ‘pork’ realigned

At the House of Representatives, lawmakers  voted last night to realign the P13.5-billion balance of the 2013 PDAF to the calamity fund so it could be used to help typhoon victims.

The House unanimously adopted Resolution 469 expressing its collective decision to realign the fund and to authorize President Aquino to use it for relief efforts and reconstruction of the devastated communities.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora and heads of the political groups making up the majority coalition are the principal authors of the resolution.

Before the House voted on the resolution, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez took the floor to express the support of Mindanao lawmakers to the measure.

“While we all support the rehabilitation of devastated communities in the Visayas, we want to remind the concerned agencies that the reconstruction of areas hit by typhoon Pablo last year and typhoon Sendong two years ago in Mindanao, including Cagayan de Oro City, is yet to be completed,” he said.

“We have to finish the disaster mitigation measures, otherwise, we will face the same devastation again,” he said.

The PDAF balance that the House wants realigned is covered by a restraining order issued by the Supreme Court (SC). Under the order, no further release from the PDAF is supposed to be made.

The House has asked Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza to inform the SC through a formal manifestation of its decision to realign the PDAF.