For snubbing budget hearing, P1 budget eyed for Optical Media Board

The Senate has recommended a P1 budget for the Optical Media Board (OMB) for the failure of its top officials to attend the hearing of its proposed budget for 2006.

Senate President Franklin Drilon issued the recommendation following the non-appearance of the OMB’s top officials led by its chairman Edu Manzano.

The OMB instead sent its officer for intelligence Dante Malbos III to defend its proposed budget, an act that infuriated Drilon.

"The Committee of the Whole of the Senate decided to recommend a P1 budget because it would appear that they themselves are not interested in their budget," Drilon said, noting that it was the second time Manzano had begged off from the budget hearing.

In the first instance, Manzano was said to be out of the country while at yesterday’s hearing, his representative claimed that his boss was sick and under medication.

Drilon said that the committee secretariat had a hard time scheduling the budget hearing of the OMB because of the non-availability of its top officials.

When asked if the number two or three in the chain of command were present, Malbos told the committee that the executive director did not want to attend the hearing without Manzano.

"We consider this behavior as inappropriate to say the least," Drilon said.

The decision of the committee was meant to send a message to all government departments, agencies or offices to give more serious consideration to Congress’ budget hearings.

A total budget of P26.6 million was proposed by the OMB for its operations for 2006, mainly for fighting piracy of all optical media such as DVDs, VCDs and software.

The OMB replaced the defunct Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) as the main body tasked to stop the manufacture and sale of pirated optical media.

Drilon said the P1 budget recommendation stands unless the OMB submits a justification for their attitude towards the budget hearing.

"They are not interested in their work because the budget is a major part of their work," Drilon said. — Marvin Sy