‘It seems we have never learned. The national budget, just like any law, is good and even pro-people and promotes economic progress as approved by Congress, but the problem is in the implementation.’
SINCE the national budget bill emanates from the House of Representatives, members of the House are now busy scrutinizing the Marcos administration’s first spending measure, and some parts they discovered they did not like.
It was Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto who first raised the issue that because of the P558.1-billion unprogrammed appropriations which he called “lump sum,” the total proposed national budget for 2023 is actually P5.856 trillion and not P5.268 trillion as announced by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Recto said that while he accepts the use of unprogrammed appropriations in the budgeting process, it would be best for the budget department to provide Congress with a detailed explanation on how it intends to spend the P588.1 billion, which is the equivalent of 16 percent of the total programmed new appropriations in the 2023 proposed budget.
“P580 billion is a huge amount. And if you take a look, there are no details. It’s just one-liner. It’s a lump-sum appropriation,” Recto noted. While unprogrammed appropriations are “standby” in nature and can be funded only when the government collects enough revenues during the fiscal year, the funds could still be disbursed even if revenues are low.
Recto and fellow lawmakers from both the majority and minority blocs are questioning the “Support for the Infrastructure Projects and Social Programs” (SIPSP) worth P149.7 billion and “Support to Foreign-Assisted Projects” worth P380 billion that are classified under unprogrammed appropriations.
Rep. France Castro noted that the SIPSP was introduced during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “but insiders are saying that SIPSP programs will be funded through clinched loans after the General Appropriations Act is passed so that it could not be scrutinized by Congress, and it is said that this has been the usual practice for years.”
Deputy speaker Isidro Ungab, for his part, has called on Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman to clarify whether the unprogrammed funds are part of the “appropriations” in the Constitution, saying he considers these as part of President Marcos’ National Expenditure Program (NEP) “even if these are deemed as standby appropriations, not backed up by revenues at the time the NEP was submitted by the President to Congress.”
Ungab noted that the figure “represents a sharp turn from the historical records of two percent to five percent (of programmed appropriations) in previous years.”
There is good reason for several congressmen to point out the risks of approving a huge lump sum that needed certain requirements to be released, such as perfected loans and excess revenues collected. This is because in the past Duterte administration, budget releases were made from this item even if the requirements were not met.
It seems we have never learned. The national budget, just like any law, is good and even pro-people and promotes economic progress as approved by Congress, but the problem is in the implementation.
