The chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations belied yesterday the reported deadlock over the P1.227- trillion national budget between the House and Senate panels. The deadlock was said to have prevented the forging of a compromise agreement to finalize the annual General Appropriations Bill for 2008.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said that it was the lack of time before the congressional recess that resulted in the delay in harmonizing the disagreeing provisions of the Senate and House versions of the national budget.
Lagman, likewise, criticized House Majority Floor Leader Arthur Defensor who claimed that the annual budget must be crafted in accordance with the wishes of the executive.
At the same time, Lagman also hit Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, who accused lawmakers of “padding” the 2008 national budget by increasing the Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel funds of congressmen.
Lagman explained that the P6.2-billion pork barrel funds for senators and congressmen, as proposed by President Arroyo, was not augmented by the House.
“Cuts in debt service (interest payments) consisting of P17.8 billion were all realigned to increase the allocations for basic services and programs like education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, national order and security, and social services and development,” he said.
Debt service cuts are justified, Lagman pointed out, for the following reasons:
1) The peso has strongly and continuously appreciated against the US dollar so much so that the allocation for debt service is now overstated by no less than P12 billion;
2) Interest payments for foreign loans that are challenged to be tainted, fraudulent and useless must be suspended pending renegotiation and/or condonation to avoid the case of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant for which P64.794-billion was fully paid even as the loan was “deceitful” and the project mothballed;
3) The Executive’s premature allocations of about P5-billion for interest payments for projected program loans still in the pipeline must be expunged from the expenditure program. Precious funds that cannot be utilized must not be immobilized.
“The threat of Andaya that if the reduction in debt service will not be restored, the President may veto next year’s budget bill is hollow posturing to force lawmakers to toe the line,” Lagman said in a statement.
“It must be underscored that cuts in debt service were made by Congress from 1993 to 1998 amounting to multi-billion pesos in reductions and the General Appropriations Bills during those years were not vetoed by President Ramos,” Lagman said.
The chairman of the Committee on Appropriations then was the late Rep. Rolando Andaya Sr., the father of Budget Secretary Andaya.
The bicameral committee will work during the holiday break and the reconciled appropriations bill will be ratified on Jan. 28, 2008 when Congress resumes its sessions.
The approval of the General Appropriations Act in February 2008 will not adversely affect the operations of the government because the first two months of the new fiscal year would only entail the preparation for the impending budgetary releases while the allocations for personal services are automatically disbursed, Lagman said.
Malacañang welcomed the move of its allies in the House of Representatives to push for the adoption of the President’s proposed national budget for 2008, which means a restoration of all the cuts made in the respective versions of the Senate and the House.
Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde said that the decision of the House is a high act of statesmanship.
Defensor said the other day that the final version of the budget that the bicameral conference committee would come up with “should be one that is acceptable to the President.”
Defensor said that it would do no good for the bicameral conference committee to endorse a budget different from the President’s proposal since she would veto or reject changes in her recommended spending program in the end.
By adopting the President’s budget, even the controversial Kalayaan Barangay funds, which were removed by the Senate, could be restored.
“It will go a long way in addressing the age-old problem of poverty in the countryside, which is at the core of the Kalayaan Barangay program for which the funds are intended,” Remonde said.
Earlier this week, the President called on the bicameral conference committee discussing the 2008 budget to restore the P1-billion Kalayaan Barangay fund so that the government could effectively implement its strategy of combining soft power with hard power in addressing insurgency and poverty. – With Marvin Sy