House passes 2014 budget; pork funds intact

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 11 years ago

House of Representatives. AP FILE PHOTO

The House of Representatives approved the P2.268-trillion 2014 national budget Tuesday night, ostensibly with no pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) lump sum appropriation in it, but with the lawmakers’ proposed infrastructure projects for funding firmly in place.

The House voted 219 to 22 to approve the bill on third and final reading.

The approved budget contained the various proposed infrastructure projects of majority of the 289 members of the House, but with a specific provision that nongovernment organizations (NGOs) could not be involved in implementing the projects.

The legislators’ chosen projects, consisting of local roads and bridges, school buildings, multipurpose buildings and water supply systems, were placed under the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways, which was one of the agencies that received a portion of the realigned P25-billion PDAF allotment.

The House decided to cut out the P25-billion lump sum pork barrel funds from the budget amid the public outrage over reports that P10 billion in pork barrel funds were allegedly diverted to private pockets via fake NGOs and ghost projects from 2007 to 2009.

The P25-billion PDAF allotment was apportioned among six departments—aside from the DPWH, the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Aside from ostensibly losing their pork barrel entitlements in the 2014 budget, the lawmakers can supposedly no longer fund scholarship programs and medical assistance for their constituents but they can make referrals to the line departments concerned.

However, House members will still retain the power to propose infrastructure projects although they will have to identify them this early in the budgeting process so they can be included in the line-budgeting.

This was not acceptable to militant party-list House members who said that the fact that lawmakers could still recommend infrastructure projects meant that the pork barrel system was firmly in place even if the lump sum PDAF was removed.

They said they did not propose any infrastructure projects themselves.

The 2014 budget bill contained a specific provision on how the realigned pork funds under the DPWH could be used. It bans NGOs from the implementation of the projects.

“In no case shall implementation of this program be delegated and/or transferred to any kind of civil society organization, whether it be a nongovernment organization or a people’s organization,” it states.

The DPWH may engage a third party to monitor the implementation of the projects.

The budget bill also states that the DPWH and the Department of Budget and Management should post the list of infrastructure projects covered and the municipalities and barangays where they are located, with corresponding costs per project, on their respective official websites.

Also to be made publicly available are the project titles and descriptions, detailed estimation in arriving at the approved budgets for the contracts, names of the winning bidders and detailed estimates of the bids, the actual costs of the projects, and any changes to the proposals.

The infrastructure projects for local governments to be funded from the realigned pork funds were listed by type and by district in the 2014 budget bill, although it does not state which lawmaker proposed which project.

Originally posted: 5:49 pm | Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013