Speaker: No pork in 2015 budget

MANILA, Philippines - There is no hidden “pork” in the proposed P2.606-trillion budget for next year, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday, denying allegations by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago that administration lawmakers may be resurrecting the allocation in another form.

“That’s her opinion. No pork in our budget,” Belmonte said in a text message.

In a privilege speech on Monday, Santiago said some P37.3 billion in supposed pork barrel funds are hidden in the budgets of the departments of public works, health, social welfare and labor, and the Commission on Higher Education.

She said the insertion of such funds, together with the new definition of savings, is unconstitutional.

She said a redefinition of savings allows the President to discontinue a program, activity or project “at anytime for justifiable reasons” and declare unused funds as savings.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, said the House has deleted the phrase “at any time for justifiable reasons” referred to by Santiago in her critique of the budget.

“With all due respect to Sen. Miriam, that clause is not included or part of the House version of the budget. We ensured that the definition we crafted is one which complies and is in full accordance with our Constitution, existing laws, rules and recent Supreme Court jurisprudence on the matter,” Ungab said.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, an appropriations committee vice chairman, said it is only the Supreme Court which has the sole authority to declare any issue unconstitutional.

He said “it is within the constitutional power of Congress to define savings.” Evardone said he could not understand how money for infrastructure, calamity victims, livelihood projects and indigent patients and students could be called pork barrel funds.

Wrong basis

Ungab’s Senate counterpart, Sen. Francis Escudero, noted that Santiago might have based her privilege speech on Malacañang’s budget proposal and not on the version approved by the House.

Santiago’s speech was apparently based on a presentation made by budget watchdog Social Watch for senators on Nov. 17 “in partnership with the office of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.”

Former national treasurer Leonor Briones heads Social Watch.

In its presentation, the group claimed that there are “PDAF-like” funds in the 2015 budget amounting to P56.3 billion.

Escudero said that the Senate’s version of the General Appropriations Bill contained a provision that required all agencies with lump sum funds to submit an itemized listing of items for funding before the actual release of money.

“So these are temporary lump sums. Before they can use this, they have to submit a listing to Congress and the Commission on Audit (COA),” Escudero said.

“I thought they wanted the power of the purse to be with Congress? The legislator identifies a project in the exercise of their power of the purse and it’s not allowed? The Supreme Court said post-enactment intervention is not allowed and so the members of Congress identifies projects, this is still not allowed?” Escudero said.

“Do they want us to just accept the budget submitted to us by (Budget Secretary) Butch Abad as is? Where is the power of the purse there?” he added.

Escudero said that he disagreed with Santiago’s view that savings could be realized at any time there is discontinuance or abandonment of an expenditure item in the national budget.

Escudero said that it is very clear in the Senate’s definition of savings that funds cannot be declared as savings unless they are released by the DBM.

Palace confident

At Malacañang, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said they recognized the right of Santiago to scrutinize the budget but stressed that the executive took the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions into consideration when it crafted the budget program.

“Based on previous years’ experience and given the commitment of the leaders of both houses, we are reasonably assured that the plenary deliberations will be concluded so that both houses are able to come up with their own versions that will later on be reconciled by a bicameral conference committee and ratified by both houses so that the proposed General Appropriations Act may be submitted for the President’s signature in December as we have experienced in the previous years,” Coloma said when asked if Santiago’s concerns could cause delay in the passage of the budget.

On errata in the budget program, Coloma said the DBM had already issued a statement answering point-by-point every issue raised “so I think these are not new issues or concerns.” - With Aurea Calica, Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan