House urges Aquino to use savings for relief of disaster victims

President Benigno Aquino III AP Photo/Malacañang Photo Bureau, Ryan Lim

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives is asking the President to tap unused funds in the budget to provide assistance to the calamity-stricken areas of Bohol, Zamboanga, and Central Luzon, and cited legal provisions to show that he has the authority to use savings to cover deficiencies.

In a resolution adopted Tuesday night, the House said that under the 2013 General Appropriations Act, the President, along with the leaders of Congress, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the heads of constitutional commissions could use savings to augment deficiencies in any item in their respective budgets.

The Administrative Code likewise allows the use of savings to cover deficiencies, and this was also upheld in a Supreme Court ruling, it added.

It noted that the earthquake in Bohol, Typhoon Santi that swept through Central Luzon, and the armed conflcit in Zamboanga had caused a lot of damage.

It cited figures from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council showing that the damage inflicted by recent disasters cost the country P4.355 billion.

The House said the call to the President was pursuant to its desire to assist the victims of the calamities and help in the rehabilitation of devastated areas.

“These disasters have brought pain and suffering to our people, disrupted the functioning of our communities, caused mass casualties, major damage to properties and disrupted our peoples’ means of livelihood, and caused widespread human, material, economic, and environmental losses,” it said.

To ensure the calamity funds are used properly, the House said the Commission on Audit should conduct a special review of the releases and utilization of the money.

It said that the Department of Budget and Management should post on its Web site the releases from the calamity fund, with the amount and purpose of each release indicated.

The agencies involved in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of infrastructure, as well as those in relief operations and non-infrastructure projects, should also post details of how the money was used on their respective Web sites.

As to the use of House savings to help stricken areas, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte told reporters that while he has the power to realign savings, he could not channel these to the calamity funds legally.

He said it occurred to him to use House savings to help the affected areas, but lawyers advised him against it. The speaker could use House savings only to augment items in the House’s own budget, he said.

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