DoJ presents House budgets items slashed by Palace
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:36:00 09/05/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- In a novel presentation, the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday first presented the House committee on appropriations items slashed by Malacañang from its original budget proposal before showing lawmakers its almost halved proposed appropriation for next year.
From its original P11-billion proposal, the Department of Budget and Management approved only P7.2 billion or, according to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, only 0.5 percent of the proposed national budget for next year of more than P1 trillion.
"That is definitely [a] small [budget] for an agency like the DoJ. My God, you're speaking of the justice system…" Gonzalez told reporters in an interview after the budget hearing.
At the start of its presentation, the DoJ presented a seven-page document listing the items that were not considered by Malacañang,
The approach apparently worked as the DoJ sailed smoothly through the hearing with opposition Representative Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro even offered to push for the augmentation of the agency’s budget.
The DoJ list showed its personnel services suffered a heavy P47 million cut that will affect the Public Attorney’s Office, Office of the Solicitor General, and Commission on Settlement of Land Problems (COSLAP).
There will be no funds for the hiring of 196 new prosecutors and 684 support staff of various courts.
A proposed P25-million hazard duty pay for National Bureau of Investigation agents and investigators was also not approved by Malacañang.
Because of these reductions, the DoJ said most of its programs will not be implemented.
These include an increase in prisoner's daily allowance, from P50 to P60. The Bureau of Correction (Bucor) had proposed a P137-million subsistence allowance for prisoners nationwide.
Bucor's request for P27 million in prisoners’ medicine allowance was also not considered.
Other DoJ requests that were not granted are the P76-million locally funded projects of the Office of the Secretary; P27-million repair and maintenance of DoJ's buildings; the P22 million supplies and materials, training, communication repairs of the Bureau of Immigration and the P5 million rental requirement of the Office of Government Corporate Counsel.
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