Supplemental budget entries ‘suspicious’

MANILA, Philippines–The House of Representatives on Thursday began plenary debates on the proposed P22.46-billion supplemental budget for 2014, which one party-list lawmaker has denounced as “replete with suspicious double entries.”

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, the appropriations committee chair, fielded questions on House Bill No. 5237 on the supplemental budget, which is intended to fund the projects “orphaned” by the Supreme Court decision outlawing the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as well as the reconstruction the areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” last year.

Ungab said the supplemental budget would be sourced from excess government revenues from dividends of government corporations and sales from the bond-sinking fund.

The national treasurer on Tuesday certified the availability of more than P28 billion in added revenues from dividends and bonds which exceeded their 2014 targets.

Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

But Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon questioned a number of items in the supplemental budget, which he considered to be “repeats” of those already funded under the 2014 and 2015 budgets.

“The Department of Budget and Management and the House leadership keep on saying that the items that they included in the proposed supplemental budget are not funded by either the 2014 or 2015 General Appropriations Act,” he said.

“However, a simple check of these budget laws show that there are proposed items in [House Bill] 5237 that are already funded by the annual national budget,” Ridon said.

“Isn’t appropriating funds for a program or project that’s already been given funding in the national budget a sort of corruption in itself?” the lawmaker said.

He cited the following “double entry” items:

— Treasury Single Account—The Bureau of Treasury asked for P903.8 million for the implementation of the “Treasury Single Account.” However, P515.6 million had already been appropriated for the project in the 2014 national budget.

— National Greening Program—Under Item No. 3, P11.2 million is allotted for the hiring of 294 former rebels as part of the National Greening Program. But the 2014 budget had already appropriated P403.5 million for the National Greening Program.

— Procurement of fire trucks—Under Item No. 5, the Bureau of Fire Protection is asking for P199.1 million for the procurement of 33 fire trucks for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). But in the 2014 national budget, Congress appropriated P1 billion for the purchase of fire trucks for ARMM.

— MRT (Metro Rail Transit) rehabilitation and capacity extension—The Department of Transportation and Communication is asking for an additional P957.1 million for the MRT rehabilitation and capacity extension. Congress already appropriated P4.5 billion in the 2014 budget for the same purpose.

— LRT (Light Rail Transit) rehabilitation—The LRTA is asking for P977.7 million for the rehabilitation of LRT 1 and 2, when Congress appropriated P2.8 billion for that purpose in the 2015 budget.