P14-B supplemental budget just presidential lump sum, says solon

ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio. Photo from congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The lone congressman to oppose the passage of the supplemental budget to be used in the relief efforts in the ‘‘Yolanda’’-stricken areas said that the lump sum has a history of getting awry when used.

Rep. Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers told Inquirer Radio 990 AM that the lump sum of P14.6 billion that will be used in the supplemental budget has only one user, the president of the country.

“I voted ‘no’ to the supplemental bill because it was a purely presidential lump sum,” Tinio said. “P14.6 billion and only the President has the authority on where it will be used.”

Tinio said that the events leading up to the pork barrel scam, the recent Supreme Court decision on the Priority Development Assistance Fund, and the Disbursement Acceleration Program should be lessons on how to use such large sums of taxpayers’ money.

“It shows how having that large of a discretionary fund becomes a source of patronage and corruption,” he said.

The legislator said that what he needs to see is an itemized proposal on how the supplemental budget will be used and that the newly passed budget is only a “blanket authority” that the congress gave to the President.

“To tell the truth, the President and the Cabinet are still formulating the rehabilitation plan and what happened is we approved the budget without even seeing a single phase of the plan.”

Tinio also said that the supplemental budget is for rehabilitation efforts for Central Visayas and that there are still sufficient funds that can be used for immediate response.

He said that there are still holdovers from the 2013 budget that amount to almost P18 billion.

“Under the 2013 budget we still have around P6 billion for the calamity fund and around P12.1 billion in savings that can be used for immediate release.

He stressed that history has been witness on how such large lump sums used calamities for ill-minded spending.

“Calamities have been used in the past to justify the release of money from the public coffers then it all goes down to corruption,” Tinio said.

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