President's budget passes unchecked; House panel ends deliberations in 30 minutes

MANILA, Philippines — The House appropriations panel just spent around 30 minutes on the proposed 2024 budget of the Office of the President before terminating the budget deliberations out of “parliamentary courtesy.”

Similar to the budget deliberations of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), lawmakers at the lower chamber on Tuesday ended the deliberations early just after the representative of the OP — Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin — delivered their opening statement.

This time, however, Makabayan bloc lawmakers were allowed to make manifestations but not to ask pointed questions on the line items in the OP’s proposed 2024 budget as practiced in the budget briefings of other agencies.

The OP stands to get P10.7 billion for 2024. Of this allocation, at least P1.41 billion will be spent on local or foreign trips -- a 58% increase from 2023.

In his manifestation, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) said that Filipinos have a right to scrutinize how public funds are spent and stressed that the insertion of confidential funds should be discussed in budget deliberations.

For 2024, OP is proposing P2.25 billion in confidential funds while P2.31 billion will be allotted for intelligence funds. In total, these make up about 43% of the proposed budget of Marcos’ office, Manuel pointed out.  

“Also, the OP has to explain why it approved the P1.25 million in confidential funds for the OVP even though this was not in the General Appropriations Act in 2022,” Manuel said.

Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) also pointed out that every year, the allotment of confidential and intelligence funds in agencies has been increasing and the budget deliberations are the prime opportunity to question its necessity.

“The number of those who used to refuse the ‘black budget’ is increasing, while the top-secret funds of those who used to receive them are growing. And the highest official also has the largest hidden funds with no audit, no public accounting, not even a single second of explanation on how it was spent and will be spent,” Castro said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“This trend should not continue,” Castro added.

Parliamentary courtesy questioned 

The Makabayan bloc also called to end the “abused” tradition of extending “parliamentary courtesy” during budget deliberations in Congress.

Lawmakers invoke the "parliamentary courtesy" tradition in Congress when they want to recognize an agency, like the OVP and OP, as a co-equal branch in government.

The long-standing tradition of allowing the budget of the two highest offices in the land to pass virtually unchecked and unscrutinized in Congress “entrenches the culture of corruption in government,” Makabayan bloc lawmakers said in a statement.

"The abused 'parliamentary courtesy' tradition has allowed unscrupulous individuals to manipulate the budgeting process and divert funds away from essential services and development projects,” the lawmakers said.