Sen. Francis Escudero INQUIRER PHOTO/DELFIN T. MALLARI JR./INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate committee on finance approved on Wednesday, albeit conditionally, the P336.9-billion allocation of the Department of Education under the proposed P2.26-trillion national budget for 2014.
The panel required the DepEd to itemize the multi-billion-peso lump sum appropriations for the construction of classrooms and the hiring of teachers by October 15. The Senate’s requirement was in response to the public’s disgust over the corruption that attended the disbursement of billions of pesos in pork barrel funds.
“[The approval of the DepEd budget at the committee level] is subject to their submission of an itemized list of the classrooms that they will construct, the teachers they will hire, the classrooms they will repair, the computers they will buy and the science and mathematics labs that they will construct,” said Senator Francis Escudero, the chairman of the Senate finance panel.
Asked if he considered the committee approval conditional, Escudero said, “Yes.”
One of the lump sum appropriations the committee wanted itemized was the P37.7 billion set aside for the construction of 43,183 classrooms nationwide. The committee wanted to know where these classrooms would be built.
“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 March yesterday—the issue of the PDAF, which is a lump sum appropriation which is found in this budget of roughly P25 billion pesos,” Senator Ralph Recto said in a budget hearing on Tuesday.
Recto called for the itemization of the P94 billion worth of projects in the 2014 national expenditure program.
“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.
With the passage of the DepEd budget in the committee level, the finance panel has in effect passed the allocations of the departments with the biggest allocations in the national budget. The committee on Tuesday passed the P213.5-billion budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara filed on Wednesday a resolution calling on the Senate to allocate half of its P4.8-billion share in the priority development assistance fund in 2014 to the education sector. The proposal came as senators continued to weigh their options on what to do with their pork barrel funds that the public wanted abolished.
“Instead of subjecting taxpayers’ money to corruption and grave abuse, we should instead utilize these funds in significant economic and social services. Education is one of the sectors of greatest need in our society,” Angara said.
Angara’s Senate Resolution No. 202 calls for the appropriation of P2.4 billion to public schools, and state universities and colleges for scholarships, classrooms, computers, teaching training and other activities.
Asked why he sought only half of the Senate’s PDAF allocation for the education sector, Angara said the needs of the health sector must also be addressed.
The Senate has yet to decide how to go about abolishing the PDAF. While there are those that want it removed from the national budget altogether, some want it to be re-allocated to certain departments or projects or subjected to line-item budgeting according to projects identified by the lawmakers.