Duterte to sign P4.1 trillion 2020 budget amid ‘pork’ claims

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte is scheduled to sign into law today the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020, seen to sustain the government’s key programs but which is also haunted by the “insertions” controversy.

It was the second time under Duterte that the annual appropriation was not enacted by the end of the year.

Last year, the passage of the 2019 budget was stalled by the bickering among congressional leaders who had accused each other of placing last-minute insertions in the spending bill. The 2019 budget was signed in April, forcing the administration to operate under a reenacted outlay for months.

The tension over last year’s spending program was apparent in Duterte’s decision to veto several items in the budget, including more than P95 billion worth of public works projects that were viewed as unconstitutional.

Duterte had also vowed to block attempts to “circumvent the Constitution or any other action that will prejudice the Filipino people” in his strongly worded veto message.

While economic managers have hailed the improvement in budget deliberations – the 2020 budget was ratified before yearend and its implementation delayed only by a few days – there are claims that this year’s spending program is not free from insertions.

After the ratification of the 2020 budget, Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed to have received a flash drive containing a source file and a list file indicating that the spending bill has questionable items, including projects that lack description.

Lacson said the source file is the list of 1,253 budget items worth P83.2 billion that was “apparently used as the congressmen’s ‘source’ of their list of 742 projects worth P16.3 billion that were inserted” in the approved bicameral report.

Lacson admitted it could not be ascertained if only P16.3 billion or the bigger amount of P83.2 billion was inserted before the bicam signing, but it was clear that “there are still lump sums and vaguely described projects that are now part of the bicam report.”

House leaders have claimed that they have passed “a budget with no pork, no parked funds and no delays with full transparency.”

In 2013, the Supreme Court declared congressional allocations known as “pork barrel” as unconstitutional because it enabled lawmakers to wield non-oversight, post-enactment authority in key areas of budget executions, a practice that violated the separation of powers.

Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado yesterday kept mum on the alleged insertions in the 2020 budget, saying the media should just wait for the President’s pronouncements.

In recent interviews, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte would not allow any illegal item in the 2020 budget.

“The President said if it is against the Constitution, he would veto it,” Panelo said in a radio interview last week.

Among the agencies, the public works department will have the biggest share of the budget with P580.9 billion, but the combined budget of items related to education is still bigger, in compliance with the requirement set by the Constitution.

The education department will have P521.4 billion while state universities and colleges and the Commission on Higher Education will get P73.7 billion and P46.7 billion, respectively.

The health department will receive P101 billion while the agriculture department will get P62.3 billion.

The budget of the social welfare department this year will be P163.8 billion while the information and communications technology department will get P9.9 billion.

The transportation department will receive an allocation of P99.4 billion while the environment department will be given P25.5 billion.

Clueless

Meanwhile, senators and congressmen are clueless about any veto on the Congress-approved P4.1-trillion national budget for this year after less than a week of operating on a re-enacted budget.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman of the committee on appropriations of the House of Representatives, acknowledged that he remains clueless on what provisions the Chief Executive may veto.

Ungab, along with Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, said the 2020 national budget is reflective of Duterte’s vision for inclusive economic growth aimed at making a comfortable life for around 105 million Filipinos.

Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said two budget-related measures they approved in Congress before they went on Christmas break last month are expected to propel the economy to a higher trajectory this year.

These are the 2020 General Appropriations Bill of P4.1 trillion and the newly signed Republic Act 11464, which made unspent portions of the 2019 General Appropriations Act available for release until Dec. 31 this year.

Villafuerte said both initiatives would let the Duterte administration all the more accelerate state spending on infrastructure and human capital development, which, in turn, are sure to further boost the growth momentum and create more jobs for Filipinos.

“Both the 2020 GAB and RA 11464 will enable the government to sustain the catch-up spending strategy that the President’s economic team put in place in (the third quarter of) 2019 to make up for the four months of delay in the passage of the 2019 GAA,” Villafuerte said.

Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman party-list, another deputy speaker expressed optimism about this year’s budget but at the same time called on economic managers to make sure that the stellar economy trickles down to the Filipino masses who need resources the most.

“Let us set a working target on poverty reduction. Together, let us aim for lower than 20 percent. It can be done this year if we maintain our focus on our inclusive economy goals,” the economist and business tycoon said.

“The whole economy will keep on running well at a sustained economic growth rate above six percent, onward to even 6.5 percent by this year and sustainable above 6.5 percent in 2021,” Romero, who is also president of the Party-List Coalition Foundation Inc., added.

Low inflation; strong consumer confidence; continued strong overseas Filipino workers’ remittances, especially from seafarers, professionals and cruise ship personnel; and robust countryside growth boosted by government spending are key growth drivers in the economy, according to the lawmaker. – With Delon Porcalla