THE House Committee on Appropriations yesterday terminated its hearing on the Office of the President’s proposed budget for 2024 with no questions asked because of the long-standing tradition of parliamentary courtesy to the Executive.
It took less than 40 minutes for the panel chaired by Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol) to wrap up the deliberations after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin presented the OP’s P10.70 billion proposed budget for 2024.
The same thing happened last week when the panel terminated the deliberations on the Office of the Vice President’s 2024 budget despite the issues hounding Duterte’s confidential funds.
This time, however, Makabayan bloc lawmakers were given two minutes to explain their opposition to the motion to terminate the proceedings, which was raised by Abra Rep. Menchie Bersamin and seconded by other members of the majority bloc.
“’Courtesy’? ‘Respect’? Don’t government agencies owe more courtesy and respect to the people, especially the Office of the President? They owe to explain they spent and plan to spend every single centavo entrusted to them,” Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) told the panel.
Castro said Congress should not allow “secrecy and silence” to lord over the proceedings, especially when the people continue to grapple with the same old problems like education, medical services, housing and the high prices of commodities which can be alleviated by extending financial aid, which she said, can be funded if the P4.56 billion confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) of the OP will be realigned to basic services.
She particularly questioned the OP’s grant of P125 million CIF in December 2022 to the OVP and asked for a copy of the OVP’s letter of request since the OVP did not have its own CIF under the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“We believe that the refusal of the OP and the OVP to undergo public deliberations about their budget, especially their CIF, gives more reason why, instead of approving their ‘black budget,’ we should have it abolished,” Castro said.
Rep. Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan) noted that CIF constitutes 43 percent of the OP’s proposed budget while “excessive travel expenses” worth P1.15 billion were spent for the President’s trips.
He said the Anti-Terrorism Law (Republic Act No. 11479) has been abused because even human rights advocates and activists are designated terrorists, adding the expansion of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is “a form of encroachment to our civilian agencies.”
Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) noted that the OP’s P4.5 billion CIF is just part of the P1 trillion budget under the President’s control, which includes the unprogrammed and special purpose funds.
“The numbers are staggering but, in the end, Filipinos make do with crumbs while more than P1 trillion is under Marcos Jr.’s control,” she said.
Bersamin told the panel that he was there because of the President’s “standing instructions to honor and respect Congress as the partner in promoting the people’s welfare and upholding the nation’s interest.”
The former chief justice assured militant lawmakers their concerns will be addressed, especially on the issue of activists being tagged as terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Council which he chairs.
The former magistrate, however, explained that more evidence should be presented for individuals to be delisted since the process of designation has been completed.
“However, don’t be worried about it, we’re checking it,” said Bersamin, who explained that of the OP’s P10.70 billion proposed funding for 2024, P7.746 billion would go to Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses; P1.676 billion to Capital Outlay; and P1.284 billion to personnel services, including pension payouts.
CHR BUDGET
While the OP and OVP have huge amounts of confidential funds, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was allocated a measly P1 million in CIF for investigations on human rights abuses.
The CHR has a proposed budget of only P976 million for 2024 from this year’s P1 billion.
Only about P3.8 million has been earmarked for financial assistance to victims of human rights violations, an amount which is at least P10 million lower than this year’s P13.7 million.
CHR Chair Richard Palpal-latoc warned that a lower budget would decrease to only P10,000 the CHR’s for financial assistance to complainants from P30,000 in previous years.
“P10,000 for a violation of human rights is insulting to a victim,” Palpal-latoc told the budget hearing of the House committee on appropriations, prompting Muntinlupa City Rep. Jaime Fresnedi to supports the restoration of the CHR’s budget for financial assistance.
