Comelec’s P4.1-B budget for PCOS likened to ‘Voldemort’

 PCOS machine. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Nancy Binay  on Friday likened to  “Voldemort” in the blockbuster movie  Harry Potter the  P4.1 billion given  to the  Commission on Elections (Comelec) in 2012 supposedly  from the  government’s regular savings.

Binay said the source of the P4.1 billion budget used to buy precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the 2013 midterm elections   was a “million dollar question,” which she raised  during  Thursday’s hearing of the  Senate committee on Finance.

“In fact I’ve said it’s like Voldemort in Harry Potter, the project with no name,” she said  in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990.

During the hearing, Binay asked Budget Secretary  Florencio Abad if the fund  was part of the  controversial Disbursement  Acceleration  Program, which was the  subject of the  hearing of the committee.

Abad said the  fund was not part of the DAP  but it came from the regular savings  of the  government.

Aside from the  Comelec fund,  Binay also grilled Abad over  the  additional  DAP-funded projects  given to certain government agencies without going through Congress.

She lamented in the radio interview that  there were projects that had been funded already by  Congress but not implemented and  later declared as savings of the government.

Binay said the  savings would then be used by the executive department to fund other projects without the approval of  Congress.
“Opo para gastusin   sa mga proyekto na hindi na dadaan  sa Kongreso  (Yes so they could spend it for projects without going through Congress),” she said when asked  if funds  allotted for  certain projects  were later declared  as savings  by the government.

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