THE government has released P5 billion from the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2, to bankroll the construction of farm-to-market road projects of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Sen. Panfilo Lacson said during the Senate’s budget plenary discussions on Monday.
Lacson questioned the disbursement as he stressed that Bayanihan 2 funds should exclusively be spent for government response measures to address the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“We noticed releases under Bayanihan 2 focused on farm-to-market roads worth P5 billion.
Can you explain the connection between these farm-to-market road releases and the government’s COVID response? I cannot make the connection,” Lacson said in his interpellation of the DA’s budget.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, who was defending the department’s P103.5 billion proposed budget for 2022, bantered the disbursements could have been done to “improve logistics,” a response which elicited laughter inside the Senate session hall.
Lacson said that “while we laugh about it,” the issue could not be considered a joke because the amount was intended for more vital programs.
Aside from the questionable P5 billion release, Lacson also flagged a 17 percent increase in the DA’s budget for agri-machinery, equipment, facilities, and infrastructure program — from the P11.3 billion proposed under Malacañang’s National Expenditure Program, to P13.2 billion as approved by the House of Representatives.
He noted that bulk of the increase was for farm-to-market road projects, which was P4.98 billion in the NEP proposal but increased to P6.95 billion in the House’s version.
Senators were caught by surprise when the DA denied being in the loop as to the details of the projects funded by the additional appropriation.
Lacson said the DA incident is a “perennial problem” in the proposed national budget.
“There were other priorities when they prepared the budget to answer the budget call.
They were tedious in preparing the budget. Now, all of a sudden, at the snap of a finger, funds are transferred elsewhere. This is a perennial problem,” he added.
