Sen. Panfilo Lacson. FILE PHOTO (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — The government should realign P84 billion worth of “pork insertions” of several lawmakers in the P4.1-trillion national budget for this year to cushion the economic impact of the new coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.
Lacson, known for his antipork barrel crusade, said the questionable appropriations were lodged in certain state agencies, such as the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), by members of the House of Representatives and some of his colleagues in the Senate.
“The DBM has withheld the P84 billion and classified these ‘for later release’ because they suspected that the funds were ‘insertions’ of congressmen and even senators,” he said.
“When you say the funds are ‘for later release,’ that’s just a euphemism for ‘it will not be released,’’’ he added.
Lacson said officials of the DOTr and DPWH had admitted to President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers that the projects covered by the budget were not submitted to them for planning.
Discontinued projects
“The lawmakers inserted [the projects] that’s why [the DPWH and DOTr officials] do not know how to implement them,” the senator said.
Last week, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued a circular withholding the release of 35 percent of programmed appropriations for 2020 and imposing a mandatory saving of 10 percent on nonessential expenditures.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Sunday dismissed comments that House leaders were tussling with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado over discontinued infrastructure projects because they feared losing their pork allocations.
“This is not pork barrel … All of these projects were approved by the executive, approved by the Senate and approved by the House, and they are very specific projects,” Cayetano said in a radio interview.
Cayetano insisted that the infrastructure projects did not meet the Supreme Court’s definition of pork barrel as these were lump sum and discretionary in nature.
Lacson urged the Department of Finance and the DBM to come clean on the total unused funds from last year’s budget after Duterte warned that the government may run out of money in fighting the pandemic.
Supplemental budget
“They should at least clarify particularly what’s left unused [from last year’s budget],” he told the Inquirer in a Viber message.
Lacson wondered why Malacañang was considering asking for a supplemental budget from Congress since Avisado had told him that at least P600 billion had been left unused from the 2019 spending program.
He also noted that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III disclosed last week that the government had already spent P352 billion, nearly a tenth of the 2020 budget, in providing cash aid to low-income households and wage subsidies to employees of small businesses.
Under Republic Act No. 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which Congress passed in March, the President can discontinue projects and realign items in the 2019 and 2020 budget for COVID-19 response, enabling him to tap at least P275 billion worth of funding.
Mr. Duterte has said he will ask Congress for additional funding for the COVID-19 response.
The government’s expenses are expected to increase as the President extended the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and several high-risk areas across the country until May 15.
The President also ordered the enforcement of a general community quarantine (GCQ) in low to moderate risk areas to further curb the spread of the virus.
This is the second time that he extended the ECQ, which has been in place over Luzon since March 17. It was initially supposed to end on April 13, but was extended to April 30.
“I don’t understand why is there a need for a supplemental budget when we have given the President authority to realign [the national budget],” Senate President Vicente Sotto III said in a radio interview.
He noted that Congress had earlier passed a law extending the validity of the 2019 budget until the end of this year.
Funds good until May
In a radio interview on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the government had enough funds for the COVID-19 response until May, or while the Bayanihan Act was in effect.
“What the government will ask is for funds once the ECQ and GCQ is lifted, because the budget we have is good for only two months,” he said.
He said that for this week, the government wanted to craft measures for the “new normal” for areas under GCQ.
“We will eventually go there while there is no vaccine. Maybe next week, we will focus on our need for a supplemental budget, which we will ask from Congress. We see no problem since Congress is back in session with an assurance from both chambers that they will convene in a virtual session and tackle Malacañang’s need for a supplemental budget,” Roque said.