Use lawmakers’ pork for jabs, Lacson urges

MANILA, Philippines — “Humongous congressional insertions” in the national budget can be tapped to meet the P20 billion funding needed to purchase COVID-19 vaccines this year instead of relying on foreign borrowings, according to Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.

The senator said in a radio interview on Saturday that he already made the proposal in a meeting with three of the government’s COVID-19 response managers and Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday.

“I suggested that the P20 billion be sourced from the insertions made by lawmakers marked ‘FLR’ because the implementing agencies concerned were not consulted on the insertions and thus could not implement them,” Lacson said.

FLR means “For Later Release,” a classification of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for budget items inserted by congressmen and senators in the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Realign FLR funds

Per DBM guidelines, funding for FLR items can only be released subject to the submission of supporting documents and other requirements, a policy decried by some senators and congressmen.

On the other hand, the bulk of the allocation for the COVID-19 vaccination program was placed in unprogrammed funds, whose release rests on loans and other funding sources.

But Lacson argued that there would be no need to enter into more loans if the government realigned the FLR funds.

Tap unused appropriations

Lacson recalled that some “favored” districts, which he did not identify, received large infrastructure budgets this year with one getting P15.351 billion, another P10.299 billion, a third P7.924 billion and a fourth P7.559 billion.

According to a circular the DBM issued on Jan. 5, FLR items in this year’s budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) alone totaled P158 billion.

He earlier denounced the DBM’s FLR system as it made no distinction between the insertions made by House lawmakers to benefit their own districts or those made by the Senate, whose members can only amend or augment the budgets of agencies.

To prevent the DBM from declaring more FLRs, the Senate and the House approved an amendment to the 2021 GAA limiting the scenarios when the budget managers could authorize impoundment of funds.

Lacson said other unused appropriations for the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Transportation (DOTr) and DPWH, which has a history of low utilization and a poor disbursement record, could also be used to buy vaccines.

“On the other hand, there is a huge amount of unused appropriations that can be realigned,” he said. “If for example, there are unused funds in the DepEd, DOTr, and DPWH, it will be relatively easy to source the P20 billion.”

Lacson said he and Sotto suggested that the three czars initiate talks with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado to determine which appropriations in the 2021 budget could be realigned for the vaccination program.