Lump sum in proposed national budget not PDAF, says Abad

MANILA, Philippines–Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said the P501.67-billion lump sum in the proposed 2015 national budget was meant for calamities, miscellaneous personnel benefits, pensions and guarantees, contingencies, debt servicing and interest payments, and the Internal Revenue Allotments (IRAs).

Abad on Wednesday submitted to the House of Representatives the government’s proposed P2.6-trillion budget for 2015.

He made the assurance that the new budget no longer has the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or the pork barrel fund. Following the Inquirer expose on the P10-billion pork barrel scandal allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the Supreme Court declared PDAF as illegal.

IRA, which is basically the local government unit’s annual share from the proceeds of the national internal revenue taxes, has long been seen as the pork barrel fund equivalent for local officials.

Provinces get 23 percent of the IRA, cities 23 percent, municipalities 34 percent, and barangays (villages) 20 percent, according to the budget department.

Around 40 percent of the IRA share going to barangays will be equally shared among the 42,028 villages nationwide, the budget department said. The remaining 60 percent is distributed to the barangays based on population size in relation to the total number of people in the country.

But for Abad, the new budget will no longer have pork barrel funds in so far as the PDAF is concerned.

He said the half a billion lump sum funds constitutes a small 29 percent of the national budget.

“I don’t think that’s too big an amount. The total amount that pertains to the special purpose funds that I have mentioned is P501.670 billion, or about 29 percent. The rest are department and agency budgets and that’s about it,” Abad said.

Following is the breakdown of the P2.606-trillion budget:

— Social services – P967.9 billion up from P841.8 billion in 2014

— Economic services – P700.2 billion, up from P593.1 billion

— General public services – P423.1 billion up from P362.6 billion

— Debt burden – P399.4 billion up from P377.6 billion

— Defense – P115.5 billion up from P89.5 billion

Social services topped the sector with 37.1 percent of the pie, followed by economic services with 26.9 percent, general public services with 16.2 percent, debt burden with 15.3 percent, and defense with 4.4 percent.

The Department of Education got the lion’s share of the budget with P365.958 billion, followed by:

— Department of Public Works and Highways – P300.519 billion

— National Defense – P144.036 billion

— Interior and Local Government – P141.423 billion

— Social Welfare and Development – P108.97 billion

— Health – P102.178 billion

— Agriculture -P88.818 billion

— Transportation and Communications – P59.463 billion

— Environment and Natural Resources – P21.290 billion

— Judiciary – P20.285 billion