Abad: Lump-sum funds are not ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines – Lump-sum appropriations in the national budget are not pork barrel funds, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday.

He made the statement to dispute the claim of Greco Belgica that special purpose funds, automatic appropriations and the unprogrammed fund are the pork barrel of President Aquino since they are lump sums.

“The only legal guideline that can help us determine what is ‘pork’ is what the SC (Supreme Court) had set forth in its PDAF decision,” Abad said.

He was referring to the tribunal’s November 2013 ruling declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund or the congressional pork barrel as unconstitutional.

He said the SC defined pork barrel “as those funds that require post-budget enactment intervention of legislators in the budget execution process, except those involving the exercise of oversight function.”

Belgica was one of the petitioners in the PDAF case in the SC.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said some appropriations in the annual budget, by their very nature, have to be lump sums “because they are for emergencies.”

“Examples of these are the calamity fund and the contingent fund. The President and Congress would not know what contingencies and calamities would hit the country, so they anticipate these by setting aside some funds as lump sums,” he said.

He said the calamity fund and contingent fund, which are special purpose funds, “cannot be considered as presidential or congressional pork barrel.”

He added that the Supreme Court recognizes the need to provide for such funds in the budget.

As for automatic appropriations, Albano said these include payments for the country’s loans, which are automatically appropriated under a Marcos decree, and funding for recurring expenses like pension and other personnel benefits.

In the case of the unprogrammed fund, it is a permanent feature of the national budget that can be used only when there are excess revenue collections or loans, he said.

As far as he could recall, he said the Supreme Court has not declared the unprogrammed fund unconstitutional.

Like the calamity and contingent funds, automatic and unprogrammed appropriations cannot be considered presidential or congressional pork barrel, he stressed.