House independent bloc questions vague budget provisions

MANILA, Philippines - The so-called independent bloc in the House of Representatives is questioning what it calls vague and suspicious provisions in the proposed P22-billion supplemental budget for 2014.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, leader of the bloc, said yesterday they would scrutinize the measure “all the way down to the last centavo, since it has a lot of unanswered questions.”

“We also want to know why the government is asking for supplemental funds which are a lot bigger than the original appropriations for some items,” Romualdez said.

“We do not see any detailed explanation or breakdown on the purposes for the supplemental budget and how did the recipient agencies arrive at the astronomical amounts they are asking for,” he said.

He said most, if not all, of the funds being asked under the supplemental budget are programmed in the 2014 budget and in the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 General Appropriations Act but have not been fully accounted for.

He said the proposed P7.999 billion will go to the construction of permanent housing for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda by the National Housing Authority.

“However, there is no breakdown on how the amount was arrived at and by whom,” Romualdez said.

He said funds for Yolanda victims have been included in the 2014 and the proposed 2015 national budget.

“But up to now, no detailed accounting has been made by any government agency on how they had spent the tens or hundreds of billions of funds, as well as donations, from our countrymen and from the international community, on the victims,” he said.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development will also get a staggering P1.942 billion for updating of the national household targeting system for poverty reduction.

He said Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman should have a rock-solid justification for why her department needs such a huge amount just to update a system, and “why can’t it be done with a much cheaper budget.”

The DSWD head, he said, should present a breakdown of how funds for the same purpose were spent under the 2014 national budget.

The supplemental budget is also proposed to include nearly a billion pesos for the rehabilitation of LRT 1 and 2.

“Just like Yolanda funds, LRT allocations have already been included in the 2014 and 2015 national budgets. Why are they asking for more when rehabilitation work has not even started yet?” he said.