Abad says proposed 2016 budget not campaign kitty

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad on Tuesday dismissed claims that the 2016 proposed national budget would become a huge campaign kitty.

In a press briefing for the turn-over of the proposed P3.002 trillion national budget, Abad said the 2016 budget, though it will be deliberated by Congress ahead of the 2016 elections, would not be used for the next presidential polls.

To illustrate, Abad said the campaign period starts February, and thus for a budget to become a campaign kitty, it has to be spent in January or a single month.

“The campaign period for the national positions starts in February. If you’re going to use this budget only in January, that’s impossible. Even the procurement process takes months. With the election ban, how can you fully utilize the budget? You can fully utilize the budget after the elections,” Abad said.

He also said the budget is itemized and thus no longer padded with pork barrel funds or discretionary funds, which had been used by politicians as a political patronage tool.

He said the budget still contained lump sum funds because this is the portion of the budget, which by its nature cannot be itemized or disaggregated.

Abad said the lump sum funds in the budget are the contingency funds, calamity funds, and the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for local government units.

The Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) following allegations of misuse under the alleged pork barrel scam.  Three senators and two former representatives are detained for plunder over the scam.

“There is no more pork in this budget. The Supreme Court has prohibited the creation of lump sum funds after the budget is created,” Abad said.

“I’d like to make it clear. Over the years, we have been trying to reduce and disaggregate lump sums in the budget. In the interest of promoting transparency and accountability, when you say lumpsum, strictly lumpsum allocations are those really presented as one big fund without any disaggregation,” Abad added.

The 2016 proposed General Appropriations Act is 15.2 percent higher from the P2.606 trillion approved 2015 budget. The proposed budget also represents 19.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016, higher than the 18.7 percent GDP share in 2015 and 16.4 percent GDP share (actual obligations) in 2010.