Duterte urged to spend ‘election kitty’ properly

President Rodrigo Duterte  FILE PHOTO / MALACAÑANG

MANILA, Philippines — A day after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the government’s P5.024-trillion spending plan into law, members of the House of Representatives complained that the national budget for 2022 was nothing more than a misprioritized “election kitty.”

Although lawmakers allied with the Duterte administration said the budget was focused on pandemic response, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate noted that the Department of Health (DOH) only got a P1.2-billion increase from last year.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez also complained that the president promised at least P10 billion for areas devastated by Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai), but only part of this sum was released and taken from the 2021 budget.

Zarate said in a statement on Friday that the national budget was “gravely misprioritized” and a “hardly disguised election kitty” for administration-backed bets.

Still unfunded

“While the supposed P51 billion for the special risk allowance and the P48.2 billion for COVID-19 booster shots are still unfunded under unprogrammed funds, the [National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NTF-Elcac] is sufficiently funded,” he said.

The P17-billion allocation for NTF-Elcac should be spent on “ramping up our COVID-19 response, especially with new rampaging variants, and helping our suffering people ravaged by Odette,” Zarate said.

The spending law, he said, allots P189.76 billion for the DOH, but that pales in comparison with the P213.78 billion funds for the military, P190.69 billion for the national police, and P785.73 billion for the public works department.

“This is truly tragic since more funds are needed especially for the benefits of front-liners as well as booster shots and syringes. Again, these can be sourced from the NTF-Elcac funds,” he said.

Rodriguez, on the other hand, said the government should immediately disburse at least P27 billion in disaster response-related funds from the recently signed 2022 national budget to help victims of the typhoon.

Use P27-B funds

He said many Filipinos affected by the typhoon in Southern Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao were “still waiting for government assistance” and the aid Mr. Duterte had promised them.

“We should help them rebuild their homes, livelihood, their communities, and their lives,” he said on Friday.

He noted that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) could not release the P10 billion promised by the President because he had not signed the budget law.

“Now that the president has signed the budget, the DBM should disburse the additional funds as early as this coming Monday,” Rodriguez said.

He said there were at least P27 billion in the 2022 budget that could be used: the P20-billion national disaster risk reduction and management fund, and the P7-billion contingency fund.

As of Friday, deaths were at 405, while damage to infrastructure reached P16.7 billion and losses to agriculture reached P9 billion.

Rodriguez noted that aside from the P10 billion promised by Mr. Duterte, communities devastated by Odette “will require billions more for reconstruction.”