THE first General Appropriations Bill under the Marcos administration for 2023 is higher by 11 percent than this year’s budget, Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said yesterday as he debunked a colleague’s statement that the proposed national budget is only higher by four percent than this year’s budget.
In an interview with the Senate media, Pimentel said that while he voted for the approval of the Senate version of the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget, he had “reservations” because the presentation of the budget measure was not accurate.
“Ang public pronouncement nila na ang budget next year is just a four percent increase in the budget this year. ‘Yan ay kung nakatingin lang tayo sa so-called programmed appropriations. Eh parang ini-ignore nila. When you say budget, merong unprogrammed appropriations na nafa-fund din naman ang karamihan doon, Ginagastusan din naman ang karamihan doon. Ano bang meaning ng budget law? Budget law is your legal basis to spend (The public pronouncement is that the budget next year is just a four percent increase in the budget this year. That is if we look only at the so-called programmed appropriations. It seems they are ignoring it. When you say budget, there are unprogrammed appropriations most of which are being funded. We have been spending for them. What does the budget law mean? The budget law is the legal basis for the government’s spending),” Pimentel said.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, has said that next year’s proposed spending measure is only four percent higher than the current national budget.
Pimentel said that a scrutiny of the proposed budget shows there are more than P588 billion worth of items under unprogrammed appropriations, aside from the more than P1 trillion for principal payments of debts.
He said the P588 billion in unprogrammed appropriations should have been included in the bottom line of the budget as announced to the people.
To sum it up, Pimentel said the total spending allowed for the administration next year would be more than P6 trillion, not just P5.268 trillion.
He said Congress should disclose the actual amount of money it will allow the government to spend so the people will know where their taxes go and how the government will source them considering the low tax collections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Kailangan malaman ng taumbayan, for full transparency, kasi saan ba kinukuha ang ginagastos ng gobyerno? Galing din sa atin… May tinatawag na tax revenue… Pangatlong source, utang na naman. So, mangungutang para lang maka-gastos, tapos ang part ng gastos, pambayad sa utang. So sino na naman ang magbabayad ng utang? Eh di ba tayo rin? … So, kailangan malaman natin yan, Huwag ibibigay na figures na four percent lang ang increase. Eleven percent ang increase. So isa ‘yang reservation na ‘yan (The people need to know for full transparency because where do we get the funds for government spending? It comes from us, from tax revenues. Another source is debts. So, we will borrow money just to be able to spend, then part of that debt will go to pay for our debts. So who will pay for these? Isn’t it that we will shoulder it?… We really need to know the truth. They should not say it was only four percent, it should be 11 percent. So that is one of my reservations),” he added.
Pimentel said another of his concerns is the allotment of confidential and intelligence funds to civilian agencies like the Office of the President (P4.5 billion), Office of the Vice President (P500 million), and Department of Education (P150 million).
Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio is also the education secretary.
Before the Senate approved the budget measure last Wednesday afternoon, Angara accepted the amendments proposed by the minority bloc to realign P120 million of the DepEd’s P150 million confidential funds to its Healthy Learning Institution program.
DepEd would still keep P30 million in confidential funds.
Pimentel said another reservation he has is in connection with the allotments intended for the benefits of healthcare workers, increase in the pension of senior citizens, and reimbursements asked by the Philippine Postal Corporation which were all placed under unprogrammed appropriations.
“Lahat ng funding na ‘yun na natutuwa tayo nabigyan ng fund, nilagay naman sa unprogrammed appropriations. Ibig sabihin nun, contingent ‘yun. Hindi sure na mabibigyan ng funding ‘yun dahil hahanap pa kung saan puwedeng pag-utang para dun (All the items which we pushed for were given funds, but sadly these were placed under unprogrammed appropriations, meaning they are contingent, not sure if they will be given funds because we still have to look for sources to fund them),” Pimentel said.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the grant of CIFs to civilian agencies is justifiable.
“The grant of confidential funds to these agencies not traditionally endowed with surveillance and intelligence mandates will enable them to immediately gather necessary information and develop appropriate interventions or programs to address child sexual abuse and pornography, illegal drugs, terrorism, insurgency, and cybersecurity, among the many emerging and pressing societal challenges we experience today,” Zubiri said.
He said national civilian agencies are not only the ones that have CIFs but local government units as well.
He said the final Senate version of the proposed national budget “realigned a total of P172 million worth of confidential funds to regular MOOE (monthly operating and other expenses) items, thereby making these subject to regular auditing.”
He said the DepED, which has P30 million confidential funds, will be required to submit to Congress its proposed work plan on the use of the funds.
Zubiri said confidential funds of the following agencies were also realigned to their respective MOOEs — Department of Foreign Affairs, P5 million; Department of Justice, P19.2 million; Department of Social Welfare and Development, P2 million; Ombudsman, P2 million; and other executive offices, P6 million.
“We repeat one very important fact — the use of these funds will still be subject to audit by COA. Moreover, the Select Oversight Committee on Intelligence and Confidential Funds will exercise its full oversight power over these funds. If the Senate finds out any hint of mismanagement or misuse of funds, I will be the one to ask to chop off these CIFs in the budget next year,” he added.
