Amid what Senate President Franklin Drilon called “an environment of mistrust, and even anger… because of the allegations of corruption and abuse of the PDAF,” the Senate started Tuesday its hearings on the proposed P2.26-trillion national budget.
Sen. Ralph Recto has identified projects worth P96 billion in Malacañang’s proposed 2014 national expenditure program that have been given lump sum appropriations, which are prone to abuse just like the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of lawmakers.
“As we all know lump sum appropriations are prone to abuses similar to what you have today and that’s why you had the Million (People) March—the issue of the PDAF, a lump sum appropriation which is found in this budget of roughly P25 billion,” Recto said in the budget hearing.
He called for the itemization of the P96 billion worth of projects as Budget Secretary Florencio Abad led the Development Budget Coordinating Committee in presenting the budget proposal before the Senate committee on finance chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero.
“We understand the anger of the people here. And because it is a lump sum, it is clear that it is prone to abuse. Now there are many items in the budget that are lump sum appropriations. If you itemize the lump sum, in truth, there might be no more need for the pork barrel,” Recto added.
Initial 10 items
He identified the lump sum allocations as the following: P12-billion Farm-to-Market Road Fund of the Department of Agriculture (DA); P37.7-billion Classroom Construction, Repair, Replacement Fund of the Department of Education; P2.5-billion Right-of-Way Fund of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); P11.3-billion request for various infrastructure including local projects of the DPWH;
P1.9-billion Feasibility Studies, Engineering Designs Fund of the DPWH; P2.5-billion Sustainable Livelihood Programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development; P7.2-billion Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan Program in various agencies; P13.3-billion Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the Department of Health (DOH); P5.1-billion Irrigation Fund of the DA; and P2.5-billion E-Government Fund.
Recto said these were just the “initial 10 items” worth P96 billion in the 2014 proposed expenditures that should be subjected to “line item budgeting, meaning the cost and the location of every project are spelled out.”
“If we are looking for a template that can be followed in breaking down huge but vague allocations, then maybe we can start by specifying where classrooms, health centers, farm-to-market roads will be built,” he said.
Weak coordination
Abad said the administration was also averse to having lump sum allocations in the budget. He blamed weak coordination within the agencies for the lack of more detailed appropriations in the government projects.
The budget secretary said the agencies concerned “should submit to us the disaggregation of their budget by Oct. 15 because the other requirement that we imposed on them is that by the last quarter of the year they should be undertaking pre-procurement activities.”
“Once their list is complete they can bid out their projects short of awarding these. When the budget is approved by the end of the year they can begin awarding contracts,” Abad added.
Asked by Escudero about the amount in the P2.26-trillion budget that had yet to be unbundled, the budget secretary said, “Until now there are lump sum items that we are seriously trying to disaggregate.”
40 percent not itemized
“About 60 percent of the budget is already covered by the budget-as-a-release document,” Abad said, indicating the percentage of the expenditures program that has already been itemized.
As to his call for the unbundling of appropriations, Recto said “there will be no harm in listing where the 43,183 classrooms will be built or repaired so children studying in crowded rooms will be assured that relief is on the way and so that people on the ground can monitor the construction.”
Right-of-way fund
Recto said the DPWH right-of-way (R-O-W) allotment must also be fleshed out complete with the names of payees so the public would know the cost of private lots expropriated.
“The R-O-W fund at P2.5 billion is 10 percent of the PDAF, and we can’t have a situation wherein the latter is itemized but the former is a blank check,” Recto said.
List hospitals
Recto said it was all but fair to ask for a listing of the “962 barangay health stations, 1,265 rural health units, 561 local government hospitals and 69 DOH-run hospitals that will benefit from the [DOH’s P13.3 billion request for health facilities’ enhancement].”
The Senate has yet to decide on how to go about the abolition of the P25 billion in PDAF, which is still provided for under the P2.26-trillion national expenditure program for 2014, Escudero said.
Escudero said the chamber would have to decide the matter in the coming weeks “probably in the plenary debates” on the general appropriations bill.
P337-billion DPWH budget
Escudero’s committee on finance, with Drilon in attendance, passed the P337-billion budget of the DPWH in its first presentation of its allocations under the expenditure program.
The DPWH has one of the biggest allocations in the 2014 budget.
“In fact, that is one of the matters that the Senate needs to settle particularly based on the resolutions calling for the abolition [of the PDAF], including mine,” Escudero told reporters as regards what to do with the congressional pork after most senators expressed support for its abolition.
Options for PDAF
Escudero said the abolition would depend on how the Senate would vote on the following options:
— Abolish and remove the multibillion-peso PDAF allocation from the proposed budget.
— Scrap and reallocate the amount to other departments or to just one department or project.
— Institute reforms in the disbursement of funds and subject it to line item budgeting.
“I still don’t know the sentiments of the majority,” said Escudero, who was one of the first to file a resolution calling for the abolition of the PDAF a week before the Million People March against the pork barrel.
DPWH’s detailed presentation
Drilon, who was present in Malacañang on Aug. 23 when President Aquino announced the abolition of the PDAF but not the pork barrel, said that he was in favor of putting the desired projects or initiatives of the lawmakers in the budget as line items.
The Senate President said this arrangement “creates a system where the public or the lawmaker’s constituents will have the chance to scrutinize them and guard their lawmakers’ process of identifying their projects.”
On the passing of the DPWH budget on its first Senate hearing, Escudero credited the detailed presentation of almost all the allocations except the proceeds from the motor vehicle users’ charge (MVUC).
“Insofar as the committee is concerned, it was endorsed favorably and submitted to plenary,” Escudero said after the DPWH hearing.
“We will unbundle the MVUC in time for the plenary [hearing],” Escudero added.
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