BUDGET Secretary Florencio Abad enumerated during a Senate hearing on Thursday the lump sums in the proposed 2016 national budget amid persistent talk that there is till “pork” in it.
No less than the head of the Senate committee on finance, Senator Loren Legarda, gave Abad a chance to answer various reports in the media regarding the lump sums in next year’s budget, often viewed by administration critics as “pork barrel” funds of legislators.
Abad first denied reports that the P434.32-billion Special Purpose Fund in next year’s proposed budget would be under the sole discretion of the President.
“The figure of total Special Purpose Fund may be correct but the assertion that the President has full discretion over them is not correct, Madam chair,” he said, responding to Legarda’s query.
Abad pointed out that there are only two lump sums in the 2016 national budget and they are the calamity fund and the contingency fund, which he said could not be provided with details.
While the calamity fund is under the Office of the President, the budget chief said, “It is processed by the NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council).
The calamity fund, he said, is lodged in the treasury and it would only be released subject to an endorsement from the NDRRMC.
“So in that sense, there’s no discretion because there have to be a calamity first,” he said.
For his part, Senate President Franklin Drilon focused on the NDRRMC fund, which includes the P19 billion for the “main calamity fund” and another P19 billion for the “Yolanda Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.”
Drilon himself said the calamity fund would be “extremely difficult to itemize because you’ll never know what the calamities are.”
With regard to the P19 billion “Yolanda Reconstruction and Rehabilitation,” Abad said it has a disaggregation up to the types of programs, the agencies in-charge and the amount available “but not to the level of specific sites, and specific projects and activities.”
And when Drilon asked why not, Abad said:“Well there is but we have required the agencies to make those submissions.”
The Senate leader then urged the budget chief to make a report on the said item since he said it was already two years ago since Yolanda devastated some parts of the country.
“It happened more than two years ago, I’m sure at this point there are already specific projects which can be pointed to for purposes of this P18.9 billion. We can already submit to the public where are these projects going to dispel all of these unfounded allegations that these are lump sums,” said Drilon.
Abad said another lump sum in the proposed budget next year was the P200 million local government support fund because he said “there are local governments who seek the help of the President for some special projects that they have.”
He said the fund will also be lodged in the national treasury and there’s a guideline that would be released “on how you can tap into that including a menu.”
Interviewed by reporters after the hearing, Drilon said he asked Abad to enumerate the lump sums to answer all “unfounded allegations” by critics.
But he said the calamity fund could not really be enumerated because there were items that could not be identified like the death benefits for local officials.
“May lump sum sa death benefits, eh kung gusto nilang i-specify, sabihin na kung sino ang mamamatay para aming ma-disaggregate, kasi lump sum yun,” he said.
“Kung sasabihin nila na ito ay bawal, pwede naming i-disaggregate, pero sila ang magbigay ng pangalan kung sino ang entitled sa death benefits.”
“You can’t push this to its illogical conclusions, so let us be rational about this. You keep on saying lump sum, alin yung lump sum? As I said, you cannot disaggregate death benefits unless you are going to tell us who are going to die,” Drilon added.