Budget Sec.Emilia Boncodin: Allocating Good Sense

Even the most cynical will admit this harsh joke could hardly apply to Department of Budget and Management (dbm) Secretary Emilia T. Boncodin, widely regarded as among the Arroyo administration’s most low-key but effective cabinet members. The national budget, with its seemingly clandestine preparation and labyrinthine processes, is an enigma to the average Filipino. A suspicious public has difficulty embracing its intricacies; instead, it clings to what it considers truisms–the deficit will surely be horrendous; too much will go to defense and too little to agriculture; much of the allocation will be lost to corruption. Boncodin is confident that an injection of transparency will heal this pessimism.

"For somebody from the outside it may seem that all you have to do is approach somebody in the dbm and you can have (what you want) in the budget. I don’t blame them because our system is not known to them. That is why one of our challenges–in fact, one of our obligations–is to explain how the budget is prepared, like how do you come up with this or that allocation. How did we decide to put P102 billion for decs? How did we decide to put P69 billion for defense? I hope to make the budget less of a mystery to the Filipino people in my term. We have already started a budget advocacy project so the budget would be understood by a greater number of people," she says.

Professorially, like the teacher she once was, Boncodin explains that the key to understanding what the dbm actually does is to remember there are two main words–Budget and Management. "On the budget side, we are the agency that is primarily mandated to prepare the expenditure budget of the national government. We coordinate with other economic agencies to formulate the budget based on certain fiscal and economic policies. We then defend the budget and release the funds. It’s a complete cycle–from budget preparation to legislation to implementation up to accountability. That’s the budget function."

Things get a lot trickier from there. "For the management function, we are the department ensuring that certain processes in the government are in accordance with rules. Processes like systems and procedures, the organization of government, the compensation of government employees–those things that will give the incentive to departments to perform. As far as the budget side is concerned, we’ve pretty much established that. What I would really like to do is concentrate on the management side. This is where we are very weak," she says candidly.

Having been with the dbm since 1979, the happily single Boncodin is one of the precious few department heads whose mastery of detail is as absolute as anyone’s in the bureaucracy. While other chiefs are publicly chastised by our severe President for ineptitude, Boncodin is somewhat considered a darling by Macapagal-Arroyo. It has little to do with the sisterhood or Boncodin’s enormously infectious chuckle–well, perhaps a bit of the latter (at Cabinet meetings, one can imagine it being, if not the heartiest, then certainly the most peculiarly disarming). She says, "Ours is a very professional relationship–I wouldn’t call it a friendly relationship. It’s professional because we’re really not that close. I’m not really in her circle of friends. When she was a senator and I was here in the dbm, we would defend the budget. I think it is also because I have been in this department for a long time so whatever she asks, I can answer. She’s very demanding, hardworking. She’s a very taxing President because she knows. She’s not dependent on anyone’s advice. She knows."

Born in Iriga City, Boncodin graduated valedictorian in both Iriga Central Pilot School (grade school) and St. Anthony College (high school). She graduated from the University of the Philippines (BS in Business Administration and Accountancy) as a government scholar, then placed 15th in the cpa Board Examination out of 8,000 examinees. "Back then, if you are a government scholar you have to sign a contract that basically says you have to work for the government for three years. After my graduation, I joined the Philippine Cotton Corporation. After that the Dean of the College of Business, Mr. Jaime Laya, became the Budget Commissioner. He was restructuring the dbm at that time and was recruiting young graduates. I was one of them. And then when I was here, I liked it. I liked the environment and I liked what I was doing. I didn’t think of leaving because I was happy where I was–plus I was getting promoted," she says, letting loose that amazing chortle.

She quickly rose to become Division Chief at age 27. In 1986, she finished her Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow. Three years later, she was appointed Assistant Secretary and, eventually, in 1991 as Undersecretary of dbm.

Boncodin became dbm Secretary from February until June 1998 under then President Fidel Ramos. The succeeding change in administration left her without a job. "I was tempted at a certain point to join the corporate world but I decided I would rather teach. Even when I was in dbm, I would teach on Saturdays just because I like to teach. I said to myself, ‘I think I would like to have an academic career and then try some consulting work.’ And that’s what I did."

Her reappointment as dbm Secretary in January of this year compelled her to sacrifice her dearly loved teaching position at UP, where she was a professor at the National College for Public Administration and Governance. "I no longer teach because I’m so busy but I look forward to teaching again. I like sharing with students. I think I’m basically a teacher. Even in our staff meetings, my staff would say, ‘O, ma’am, you’re teaching again!’ I tend to lecture, I suppose," she smiles. "I like the challenge of teaching because you’re always on your toes, especially with the students in UP who are very irreverent. They’re smart-alecks. You’re always challenged by the things they ask you."

The preparation of a national budget takes the dbm all of six months. During this time, the various government departments and agencies submit budget proposals, an inexact science because of the frail grasp some heads have of their departments. Activist Eduardo Olaguer claims that because of "laziness, incompetence, or lack of material time", the task of preparing a budget proposal is often delegated to a staff assistant. "And the underlings will surely take advantage," she says, "as Mickey Mouse and his brood would do to a roomful of unguarded cheese."

Boncodin insists it is not as haphazard as it seems. "I don’t see that as a problem. I for one like to delegate. You cannot perform all your functions if you are the only one making certain decisions. I would like to concentrate on the big problems. Whenever somebody is promoted, I tell him or her, ‘You are no longer a pencil pusher or number-cruncher. You are now occupying an important position and you are now my alter ego.’

"The agencies make their proposals and of course I expect them to go through the rigors of preparing a plan and then costing it. What is a budget? It is the cost of your plan. I expect them to go through that process before they make their proposal. We have already developed certain guidelines and rules. In setting a certain budget proposal level, it is not just dbm. We have what is called the Development Budget Coordination Committee which decides on the overall budget level. The Budget is prepared jointly, with neda, for instance. We have this joint planning and budgeting task force where we exchange information. Our relationship with neda has been a very close relationship over the years."

Some six months ago, Boncodin, quoting from a World Bank study, stated that the Philippine government is losing up to P20 billion to corruption every year, not including commissions and kickbacks from state infrastructure contracts. The inevitability of such an immense seepage, while dispiriting, does not debilitate the Secretary. "It is very disappointing, so what do we do? We cannot go on being disappointed or else you would be doing a disservice to your cause and your post. You try instead to look for ways to eliminate this, or at least minimize it. Procurement is one area where a lot of the leakages happen. In decs alone, when they changed their procurement system they told me that they generated savings of up to 28 percent. They didn’t have to ask for more money to buy more books and more chairs. The most important thing for me is to make procurement very transparent, then people will be more afraid to go against the rules."

The months of number crunching all boil down to convincing an often cantankerous Congress they should approve the proposed budget. Says Boncodin, "Defending the budget is a different battle. It is not difficult if you are convinced of the budget you are defending in the first place. If it is something you are not convinced about, you will be telling lies and you will be caught.

"I have taken the position that what we do is propose a budget but it is Congress that really enacts it. And since these are representatives of the people, I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are going to improve my budget. If you ask me, I don’t want anything changed, but it’s the product of a long process of scrutiny and analysis. I cannot say that my budget is better than Congress’–that is too presumptuous on my part. I will disagree with some of the changes that are made but, at the end of the day, it is the budget that is passed that I will implement."

Boncodin is regularly faced with intense lobbying from rather imaginative politicians; once she was asked to dip into the Calamity Fund even though Mother Nature was at her best behavior. "I said that if you could treat it as a calamity then why not? But by no stretch of the imagination can I make it look like a calamity. So how do you parry those things? My role, essentially, is to be consistent with what I say to one and then to another. For me, that is the best way to deal with congressmen. If you tell one something and another the same thing, then it doesn’t bother you anymore. It’s the minute you start making exceptions that you become very vulnerable. The exceptions become the rule."

By 2002, the dbm will inaugurate a website wherein all dbm releases may be tracked by the ordinary citizen. She says, "Anybody who is interested can know, for instance, how much money was given to Quezon City. They can even chase down and see if a certain barangay road project was ever built. Government cannot do all the checking alone."

If by then Secretary Boncodin makes good on her promise to demystify the esoteric workings of her department, perhaps we are in for a civic revolution. The shenanigans uncovered by the website’s new frontier of transparency may snowball into a powerful, people power-led check-and-balance. What a legacy that would be for the Cabinet secretary already famous for her 14-hour workdays–and her odd, wonderful giggle.