Senate slashes P31 B from ’06 budget

The Senate committee on finance has recommended a P31.11 billion cut in the proposed P1.053 trillion 2006 national budget.

In a sponsorship speech delivered yesterday, committee chairman Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. said the Senate amendments came out with an increase of P4.43 billion but also a decrease of P35.54 billion, for a net budget cut of P31.11 billion.

Included in the P31.11 billion trimmed from the General Appropriations Bill was the P13.1 billion allocation for the increase in the allowances of government employees.

The funds for this purpose were already appropriated under a supplemental budget passed earlier this year because of the delay in the passage of the 2006 budget.

Another P10 billion earmarked for the incentive package for employees availing of the rationalization program under the pension and gratuity fund was deleted by the Senate from the General Appropriations Bill.

Villar said the departments and agencies concerned disclosed that the rationalization program has not yet taken off this year.

The Kilos Asenso Support Fund (P5 billion) and the Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund (P3.69 billion) were also taken out of the budget.

These two appropriations were described by the members of the Senate as President Arroyo’s pork barrel funds.

Based on its description under the proposed budget, the Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund was to be used to finance livelihood projects and basic infrastructure work for barangays in conflict areas identified by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Department of National Defense.

On the other hand, the Kilos Asenso Support Fund is intended as the national government counterpart to support programs and projects of the local government units (LGUs) under the Kilos Asenso Movement.

The entire budget of P65.53 million allocated for the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was also removed by the Senate.

During the Senate budget hearing on the PCGG allocations last year, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile called for a zero budget for the PCGG because of PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio’s refusal to answer senators’ questions on the issue of compromise agreements between the government and San Miguel Corporation (SMC) chairman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco regarding disputed SMC shares.

On the other hand, the Senate recommended the increase in the budgets of the Department of Health (DOH) by P350 million; Commission on Higher Education (CHED) by P100 million; University of the Philippines (UP) by P100 million; and the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program for the Young Farmers Program by P50 million, among others.

Villar described the 2006 budget as "meatier" compared to the bare bones budget of recent years.

According to Villar, the national budget grew by an average of 9.85 percent from 1995 to 2004 but in the 2006 proposed budget, the increase was pegged at 14.7 percent or P135 billion from the previous year.

This year’s budget represents the highest annual increase in six years from fiscal year 2000, when it went up by 17.59 percent.

The two biggest components of the P135 billion budget increase will go to non-discretionary expenditure items, such as interest payments, which will increase by P26.6 billion, and the internal revenue allotment (IRA) of LGUs, which will go up by P14.8 billion.