Budget deliberations suspended as Senate goes on break

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has suspended plenary deliberations on the proposed P3.8-trillion national budget for 2018 as Congress goes on a month-long break starting today.

Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate finance committee, said debates on the proposed national budget would continue when Congress resumes session on Nov. 13, with the aim of having the same signed into law by early December.

The chamber wanted to finish deliberating on the spending program this week to approve it at the resumption of session.

But due to the questions raised by senators on the budgets of various agencies, the deliberations were prolonged.

Legarda said one major issue raised by senators was the massive underspending of government agencies this year.

Among the agencies whose budgets have been approved were those of the Departments of Agrarian Reform, Public Works and Highways, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Office of the President and the National Housing Authority.

No ‘pork’

Congressmen maintained that there is no “pork” in the proposed P3.8-trillion national budget for 2018.

Speaking for the House of Representatives, appropriations committee chairman Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao City reiterated this yesterday amid assertions of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and budget watchdog Social Watch that there are still billions of pork barrel funds in the proposed budget.

Nograles said the House is strictly complying with the decision of the Supreme Court (SC), which declared as unconstitutional pork barrel funds or lump-sum discretionary funds that legislators in the past were able to control through post-enactment methods or measures. 

“There are no such appropriations in this year’s budget and in next year’s budget proposal because all programs and projects have been itemized and defined. The budget process and deliberations have been transparent and the budget book is open to everyone’s scrutiny,” he said.

Nograles added that under the SC decision, “legislators cannot interfere in the disbursement and utilization of funds, as well as the implementation of projects and programs as this is purely an executive function.”

In a recent interview, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said there are no pork barrel funds in the sense that the SC has defined such appropriations in its November 2013 ruling striking down the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as unconstitutional.

The PDAF was a P25-billion lump sum in the annual budget. It allocated P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each House member. 

Senators and congressmen submitted their listing of projects after the budget was enacted. They also meddled in project implementation.

            – With Jess Diaz