There’s good and bad news about the P4.1-trillion general appropriations bill (GAB) that the House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate on Tuesday, according to opposition lawmakers.
The good news is that the Department of Education (DepEd) got additional funding and the cut in the proposed budget of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has been restored.
The bad news is that the House has “significantly increased” President Duterte’s Special Purpose Fund (SPF) and the budgets of the Department of National Defense (DND), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), according to the Makabayan party list coalition.
At a press briefing on Thursday, members of the Makabayan coalition said the House increased the President’s SPF by P4 billion to P765.8 billion.
The Makabayan lawmakers said the increase in the SPF, which they called “presidential pork,” proved that the patronage system was thriving under the Duterte administration.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, a deputy minority leader, said it was a House panel, tasked with inserting amendments into the budget bill that the House earlier approved on third reading, that increased the funding for the SPF, DND, DILG and DDB.
The House on Tuesday transmitted to the Senate its amended version of the approved GAB, after the 13-member “small committee” effected amendments that were shared with the rest of House members only on Wednesday.
In a privilege speech on Wednesday, House Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu lauded the passage and transmittal of the GAB to the Senate, supposedly in record time.
The proposed 2020 budget will “support strong, sustainable and equitable growth,” and “will make the Philippine society more inclusive than what it was the year before,” Abu said.
Railroaded
Zarate, however, said that the passage of the proposed budget in the House was railroaded “at the expense of quality debate that should have allowed House members to scrutinize the budget, especially since the budget process again became controversial last year,” he said.
The increase in SPF is among the “initial findings” of Makabayan lawmakers after comparing the GAB version that was approved in the plenary and the one that was transmitted to the Senate, according to Zarate.
The SPF, which was allotted P761.8 billion in the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive department to the House, was hiked to P765.8 billion, or an increase of P4 billion, documents showed.
“Administration allies have openly admitted the resurgence of [the] patronage system of politics in the country. It may have changed appearance but it is still pork,” Zarate said.
DPWH allocation cut
The bulk of the P4 billion purportedly came from the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which lost P3.75 billion from its road-right-of-way funds, according to notes shared by Makabayan lawmakers.
In its amended GAB, the House added P1 billion to the DILG budget for 2020, raising it to P237.2 billion, supposedly for the “camp development fund” of the Philippine National Police.
The budget for the DND was also increased by P1 billion to P189.6 billion, according to Zarate.
“These [amendments] again clearly show that this budget is intended as a war budget,” he said, supposedly to be used for the “deadly” campaign against illegal drugs.
The House also added P500 million for the “assistance to local government units,” supposedly for the “Metropolitan Manila Traffic Management Program.”
“We have to watch the use of these funds closely, because this could be to allow them to address the so-called traffic crisis,” Zarate said.
About P275 million was added to the original allocation for the Department of Transportation, supposedly for the operating expenses of the Davao City International Airport.
‘Positive’ amendments
Among the “positive” amendments to the transmitted GAB is the additional funding for the DepEd, PGH and National Food Authority (NFA), according to Zarate.
The NFA allocation was increased by P3 billion, while P500 million was added to the PGH budget, through the University of the Philippines system.
On Monday, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto assailed the Department of Budget and Management for cutting the proposed PGH budget by P456 million, saying that while many Filipinos are getting sick, the budget for hospitals is being slashed.
The P3 billion added to the NFA raised its budget to P7 billion, still lower than the P8 billion that lawmakers were pushing for to help farmers adversely affected by the impact of Republic Act No. 11203, or the rice tariffication law, according to Gabriela Women’s Rep. Arlene Brosas.
The tariffication law has opened the floodgates to cheaper imported rice, pushing down prices of palay, or unhusked rice.
The DepEd received an additional P856.5 million for its “Support to Schools and Learners Program.”