2021 budget not free of pork – Makabayan bloc

MANILA, Philippines — The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives is trying to belie the claim of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco that the P4.5-trillion proposed national budget for 2021 approved by the chamber on third and final reading on Friday night is free of pork.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro on Saturday said P16.4 billion for barangay development projects under the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict remained in the budget and that the item was “not clearly defined,” making it “essentially pork.”

“The Speaker said there is no pork, but I believe this is pork because it is a lump-sum [appropriation] and it is up to the discretion of [President] Duterte’s generals,” Castro said in an online press briefing.

Another Makabayan lawmaker questioned the multibillion-peso appropriation for the task force that could have been allocated for the government’s coronavirus response.

“There is a P19.1-billion budget for the [task force] while many Filipinos are dying from hunger due to the pandemic. [The government] prioritized funding a nonline agency, the [task force], which is just a coordinating body,” Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said in the same briefing.

Under the proposed General Appropriations Act for 2021, the task force has a budget of P19 billion, P16 billion of which is earmarked for its barangay development program.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the task force vice chair, earlier said that 822 remote barangays would each get P20 million from the fund.

Velasco told reporters on Friday night that the House had approved a “constitutional budget” with “no pork.”

But Brosas said the budget was “riddled with [irregularities] and pork.”

She cited the P38-billion right-of-way fund allocated for the Department of Public Works and Highways, which she said was “vulnerable to corruption and arbitrary spending.”

Brosas lamented that while huge amounts were allocated for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads, bridges, and flood-control projects, no funds were allocated for the building of hospitals.

“This 2021 budget really abandoned public health, the distribution of assistance, the micro, small and medium enterprises, and the agriculture sector,” she said.

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar had expressed confidence that his agency’s proposed budget would pass the scrutiny of lawmakers.

Intelligence fund

Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Culliamat blasted the allocation of P4.5 billion for the President’s intelligence fund.

“The intelligence and confidential fund was increased while it is not clear where this fund will be spent and certainly there will be no accountability,” Culliamat said.

Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said a huge portion of the P4.5-trillion proposed budget would come from borrowings.

“It is estimated that P3 trillion will be borrowed,” Gaite said.

The House approved the proposed budget at the end of a four-day special session called by President Duterte to save it from delay due to a leadership squabble between Velasco and Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano.

A delay would have led to the reenactment of the 2020 budget, which contained nothing for pandemic response.

Refusing to turn over the leadership to Velasco under a term-sharing agreement brokered by the President last year, Cayetano lost majority support and was ousted as Speaker last week.

Smooth sailing in Senate

ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap, the House appropriations committee chair, said on Friday a soft copy of the approved budget would be submitted to the Senate by Oct. 28 to give the senators a few weeks to study it before they resumed session on Nov. 9.

The chair of the Senate finance committee on Sunday expressed optimism that the budget would have smooth-sailing in the chamber.

In a radio interview, Sen. Sonny Angara praised Velasco for the Marinduque representative’s quick response to complaints raised by Senators Panfilo Lacson and Franklin Drilon about a potential delay in the approval of the budget under the earlier timetable, with the transmittal of the House-approved version to the Senate on Nov. 5.

Lacson earlier warned that the 2020 budget might be reenacted if the transmittal of the House-approved general appropriations bill would be as late as Nov. 5.

He and Drilon also reminded the House that introducing amendments to the budget measure through a small committee after its passage on third reading was unconstitutional.

A small committee in the House received and resolved amendments to the budget by the agencies after second reading earlier Friday.

—With a report from DJ Yap