While the Senate had already passed the proposed P3.767 trillion national budget for 2018, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon still wants to know why some agencies have received increases of over P1 billion.
Drilon, in a statement on Thursday, particularly questioned the substantial increases given to three agencies of government — the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) where the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) budget is lodged, the Bureau of Customs (BoC), and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Under the Senate version of the national budget bill, Drilon said, the DILG got a P1.65-billion raise, P1.49-billion and P1.21-billion additions in the budget of the BOC and PDEA, respectively.
In contrast, Drilon noted deep budget cuts for some key agencies, including the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH), which proposed budget for next year decreased by P26.40 billion under the Senate version, while the budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was cut by P1.84 billion.
Drilon also noticed that some items in the budget have decreased by billions of pesos in the Senate version like the Pension and Gratuity Fund, which proposed budget under the Senate version was reduced by P17.08 billion; the National Disaster Risk Reduction Fund decreased by P8.1 billion decrease; and the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund cut by P4.66 billion.
The senator said some of the amendments may have been requested by the agencies or proposed by the members of the chamber and adopted as amendments by the Senate committee on finance led by Senator Loren Legarda.
During plenary deliberations on Wednesday, the minority leader asked Legarda to submit the justifications for the amendments that entail budget increases of over P1 billion.
“We would like the committee to submit to each member of the senate, and for the record, the nature and purpose of these changes in the agencies’ budget, particularly those with over P1 billion in addition,” Drilon said.
“We cannot leave our people in the dark as it would only fuel speculations that pork barrel is still thriving despite the Supreme Court’s decision declaring it unconstitutional,” Drilon added.
In view of the concerns of the public regarding the alleged “pork” in the budget, he said, it would best to “shed some light into the budget.”
The Senate, nevertheless, approved the 2018 national budget with all16 senators present in the session hall unanimously voting for its passage.
READ: Senate unanimously approves P3.767-T nat’l budget on final reading
READ: 2018 budget has P60B for salary hike of uniformed personnel, P10B for Marawi
/kga