President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER.net Photo
MANILA, Philippines — An old bill he once filed to minimize presidential power over the national budget has come back to haunt President Aquino.
But unlike the senator that he was then, the President now does not sound as enthusiastic in pushing for the proposed Budget Impoundment Control Act in the face of widespread criticism over the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and his own pork barrel.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma spoke, on Sunday, in general terms when asked if Malacañang would support the fiscal measure, which was resurrected in the administration-controlled House of Representatives.
“The President and his administration are committed to the principle of ‘daang matuwid’ or good governance,” he said in Filipino in his regular radio Sunday briefing.
“All steps that can help [in achieving this goal] are welcome,” he added, but maintained that House Bill No. 2904 should be “examined” first.
The bill, which was introduced by members of a minority bloc headed by Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, revives a similar legislative measure filed by Mr. Aquino when he was still a senator during the Arroyo administration.
Even the President’s own allies at the Akbayan partylist group filed a similar bill, arguing that Aquino “must understand the necessity of implementing under his term deeper reforms particularly those that address the Executive’s unregulated fiscal powers.”
“It is not enough to say that he has not stolen a single cent from the nation’s coffers,” the group said in a statement posted on its website.
“President Aquino must make necessary steps to ensure that future administrations will not abuse the people’s fund to entrench their interests, such as what have been displayed in the past.”
Akbayan, whose members have secured key positions under the current administration, also urged the President to “go beyond courage and make the short-term sacrifice of clipping his own fiscal powers to ensure the long-term gain of the people.”
The old Aquino bill sought to “limit executive influence over specific appropriations in the General Appropriations Act.”
The President’s prerogative to impound portions of the budget, then Senator Aquino complained, “has been misused and abused.”
It also “has emasculated Congress’ authority to check the President’s discretionary power to spend public funds,” Aquino claimed in his bill’s explanatory note.
Years later and now that he’s the President, Aquino is himself under fire for refusing to let go of his enormous pork barrel, which critics placed at around P450 billion in the 2014 budget.
The President is also criticized for giving away P50 million to P100 million in additional pork to senators after he secured the conviction of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad admitted that the amount came from pooled savings spent using the DAP, a mechanism introduced in 2011 to supposedly stimulate economic activity.
But Aquino himself admitted that “9 percent” of these DAP savings had been spent on projects nominated by legislators, a mechanism similar to the one used in the graft-ridden Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
This portion of the DAP increased congressional pork barrel by P12.8 billion in 2011 and 2012, based on official budget records.