Budget chief Avisado quits, cites health problems

Wendel Avisado —MALACAÑANG FILE PHOTO

Health matters were what Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado cited in his letter dated Aug. 7 as the reason for his decision to leave his post effective Aug. 13.

And President Duterte has accepted Avisado’s resignation “due to medical reasons,” his spokesperson Harry Roque announced on Friday.

Mr. Duterte has named Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda as officer in charge of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Roque said.

Earlier, the 68-year-old Avisado went on medical leave from Aug. 2 to Aug. 13 after being afflicted by COVID-19. He said in his letter that he was hospitalized for 10 days and ordered to go on quarantine for more than a month.

He also said his doctor had advised him to undergo a series of medical examinations as it had been 14 years since his quadruple heart bypass operation.

But something else may be behind Avisado’s resignation, according to two sources who declined to be named for lack of authority to speak publicly on the matter.

They said Avisado had been implicated in corruption in the department’s Procurement Services (PS-DBM) although he had no direct knowledge of the questionable contracts reported by someone close to the President.

The Inquirer sought Avisado on Friday to ask if this was true. He replied: “Rumors are rumors.”

Critical time

Avisado’s resignation came at a critical time, with the DBM preparing the Duterte administration’s 2022 budget, its final spending plan.

As prescribed by the Constitution, the budget proposal is to be submitted to Congress within 30 days from the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), which this year fell on July 26.

Prior to heading the DBM starting in August 2019, Avisado served as presidential assistant for special concerns—a position he was appointed to in November 2016.

He also served as deputy secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and as regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Avisado was once administrator of Davao City and also served as city councilor.

Billion-peso bids

According to the two sources, certain former PS-DBM officials could have extracted billions of pesos from certain bidders after promising to award them contracts, only for them to lose during the biddings.

A source claimed that one losing bidder who had shelled out millions of pesos told the President about the alleged corrupt practices at the PS-DBM, angering the latter and leading to his firing of Avisado.

Prior to the DBM’s announcement of Avisado’s medical leave, it was rumored that Undersecretary Anthony Aguilar would either replace him as budget chief after his resignation for health reasons, or be designated officer in charge.

Aguilar is said to be a “brod” of Mr. Duterte’s, both being members of Lex Talionis Fraternitas.

The week before the President delivered his final Sona, Avisado told the Inquirer that the DBM was biding its time in submitting the P5.024-trillion 2022 national budget proposal to Congress because this prolonged pandemic had resulted in many “requests” for financing under Mr. Duterte’s final spending plan before he steps down from office in 2022.

Avisado told the Inquirer on July 23 that the DBM would still submit the proposed budget for next year within the prescribed time frame, or within a month after Congress resumes session after its sine die break.

Last year, the DBM did not submit the budget proposal on the same day as the President’s Sona as the nation and the bureaucracy were then grappling with the lockdown restrictions imposed at the onset of the pandemic.

‘Things to act on’

This year, Avisado said “there are still many things that we need to consider, review and evaluate” before pitching the proposed budget to Congress, which holds the power of the purse.

“There are many more requests for reconsideration/inclusion of budget items, more than the allowable budget ceilings and other requests for modification, etc., which we have to act on,” he said.

“Many, but not all” of these requests are in consideration of departments and agencies’ programs and projects for COVID-19 response, Avisado said.

The 2022 budget will also be spent in a presidential-election year.