Villar assures DPWH P534-B proposed budget is pork free, no parked funds

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar. INQUIRER file photo / LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The P534.3-billion proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for 2020 has no illegal pork barrel and anomalous parked funds, Secretary Mark Villar assured Tuesday.

House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano shot the first questions regarding the controversial issues during the budget defense of the DPWH before the House appropriations committee.

“Mr. Chairman, we shifted to line-item budgeting, in other words, there’s no pork barrel. We will not tolerate it,” Villar said in response to Cayetano’s query.

The DPWH secretary also said the anomalous practice of “parking of funds” has no place in their expenditure plan which is 15 percent higher compared to the previous year’s budget.

The DPWH’s strict monitoring of infrastructure projects using software and geotagging led to the blacklisting of around 18 contractors, added Villar who had been criticized for conflict of interest over his position and his family’s real estate and land development-related businesses.

He also said their budget, which is 13 percent of the total P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020 is evenly distributed across the country’s regions.

“It’s really balanced based on the needs,” Villar said.

Almost 50 percent of the DPWH budget was earmarked for Luzon (P201 billion), while 34 percent was allocated for Mindanao and 16 percent for Visayas. DPWH is the department that got the second-highest budget under the National Expenditure plan for the next fiscal year, next to the Department of Education.

Congress’ passage of the 2019 national budget was delayed due to bickering among legislators about alleged illegal insertions. Following this, President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed some P93.5-billion infrastructure appropriations that were “not within the programmed priorities.”

READ: Budget delay due to row over pork slows down growth

Parking of funds was the scheme bared during the 17th Congress wherein some congressmen are parking budget at another district, while pork barrel or the Priority Development Assistance Fund is a lump sum fund which had been declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013. Both are usual sources of corruption and lawmakers’ kickbacks. /jpv