Congress approves P22.5-B supplemental budget

MANILA, Philippines - The two chambers of Congress last night approved the proposed P22.5-billion supplemental budget for this year.

Voting 13-0, the Senate passed the supplemental outlay with minor amendments despite earlier criticism from Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who did not show up to ventilate her opposition to the measure.

The Senate then transmitted its version to the House, which approved the senators’ minor changes.

The measure will now be printed and sent to President Aquino for his signature. It becomes a law once he signs it. It allows the government to use the additional budget up to the end of next year.

The approval of the supplemental budget capped this year’s last day of session of the House and the Senate.

On Monday, the two chambers approved the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget.

Addressing his colleagues before adjourning, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the approval of the supplemental outlay is important since it would fund urgent projects, activities and programs that have not been financed out of this year’s budget.

He thanked his colleagues for their cooperation and hard work in approving the two budget measures and scores of other vital bills, including the grant of special powers to the President to enable him to deal with a projected electricity shortage in Luzon during next year’s summer.

Before ending his speech, he invited his colleagues to join the House Christmas party, to which Aquino, a former Tarlac congressman, was invited.

He announced that he would shortly transmit to Aquino for his signature the Congress-approved bill increasing the amount of tax-free yearend bonuses and incentives of salaried workers from P30,000 to P82,000.

A large part of the P22.5-billion supplemental budget is allocated to victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Some P8 billion will go to the National Housing Authority (NHA) for the construction of permanent housing units for Yolanda victims.

The amount is on top of the P13.4 billion that the NHA has already received for 46,000 houses. It has reported that it has so far built only 1,595 units.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development will receive more than P2 billion for temporary shelter assistance also for Yolanda victims.

The Philippine National Police will get P2.8 billion for its “operational transformation plan,” which will entail the procurement of more patrol vehicles and firearms.

Some P1.8 billion is allocated to the Department of Public Works and Highways for the payment of obligations for the completion of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) projects.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, said the allocation does not violate the Supreme Court decision striking down the PDAF as unconstitutional since the payments would be for projects finished before the tribunal’s ruling.

At least 10 items of appropriation in the supplemental budget will fund projects whose appropriations were affected by the SC declaration that the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), like the PDAF, was unconstitutional.

However, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the declaration does not prevent Malacañang from asking Congress for continued funding for such projects.

The P2.8 billion for the PNP is one of the DAP-related appropriations in the supplemental budget.

Another is P300 million for an information technology project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

It is not clear what this funding is for, but a House source said part of it is for the purchase or rental of laptops, iPads and similar gadgets.

There was nearly P2 billion in the 2015 DOST budget for the same purpose, but the Senate, upon the initiative of Sen. Ralph Recto, realigned it to fund free public WiFi hotspots.

The other DAP appropriations in the supplemental budget include P978 million for the rehabilitation of the Light Rail Transit lines 1 and 2, P340 million for the Philippine Coconut Authority and P250 million for the completion of the House legislative library and archives building, P5.2 million for the transfer of the Quezon City prosecutors’ and public attorneys’ offices.

Also DAP-related are P240 million for development assistance to Quezon province, P287 million for the National Housing Authority (NHA) to be used for the relocation of squatters at its North Triangle property near Trinoma mall in Quezon City, P340 million for the Philippine Coconut Authority, P196 million for the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority and P199 million for the purchase of 33 fire trucks for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Abad said the President was precisely complying with the SC ruling on DAP by proposing a supplemental budget for projects to be funded from excess revenues.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon has certified that P28 billion in excess dividends from state corporations and earnings of the Bureau of Treasury from bond placements was available to support the additional budget for this year.

Santiago opposes budget

Santiago reiterated her opposition to the approval of a supplemental budget, which she said was not necessary.

In a manifestation that she submitted for the records of the Senate since she was not able to attend yesterday’s session, Santiago said a huge chunk of the 2014 national budget is still unused so asking for a supplemental budget in December is “ridiculous.”

“For the first three quarters of 2014, Congress has authorized the President to spend P1.730 trillion. By the end of the third quarter, he has spent only P1.456 trillion, thus underspending was a staggering P274 billion,” Santiago said.

She questioned the urgency in approving the supplemental budget and aired her suspicion that the measure is meant to give the President and Abad a way out of the SC unanimous decision that some aspects of the DAP are unconstitutional.

“Hence, it is highly probable that the supplemental budget is meant to legitimize what the SC ruled as illegal. It would now appear that Secretary Abad is still trying to remedy what the SC ruled as illegal in its decision on the DAP,” Santiago said.

“He appears to be asking Congress to legitimize his illegal acts, making members of Congress accomplices in the act of circumventing the Supreme Court decision on the DAP.”

She added that the passage of special appropriations acts should be done sparingly such as when there is extreme crisis or when the government has to step up public spending to avoid a major economic downturn.

“It would be a monumental mistake to use the supplemental budget to legitimize what clearly were illegal acts by some executive officials,” Santiago said.

“By going along with this dark scheme, legislators, who are supposed to make laws, become accomplices in undermining the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, the usually critical party-list group Bayan Muna hailed the decision of the House of Representatives and the Senate to rewrite the Palace-proposed definition of savings.