Noy: Carandang's proposed P200-million budget too high

MANILA, Philippines - The reported proposal to provide an additional P150 million to the already approved P50-million budget for 2011 of Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang is “too high,” President Aquino said yesterday.

“Hindi yata tama ang request niya (It seems Carandang’s request is not right) for an increase in budget. The P200 million seems to be too high,” Aquino told Palace reporters at the Araneta Coliseum where he was keynote speaker at the 10th National Cooperative Summit.

The President nevertheless said the issue seems to have been settled and corrected.

“I think he answered it and he clarified the issue. Nagkaroon ng clarity and I think he wrote a letter addressed to the broadsheet concerned,” Mr. Aquino pointed out.

Carandang’s department is one of two divisions under the Communications Group the President created through Executive Order 4. The other is the Presidential Communications Operations Office headed by his colleague in a co-equal capacity, Herminio Coloma.

The PCOO replaced the Office of Press Secretary, which served past administrations.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad clarified that the P200 million increase for Carandang’s office is not true.

“On the supposed P200-million budget for the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office for 2011. Let me state for the record that this is incorrect. The PCDSPO is proposed to have a budget of P50 million for 2011,” he said.

Abad clarified that it was Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa’s idea to allocate P50 million for Carandang’s office, “by way of reallocation from the Office of the President’s confidential and intelligence funds.”

“This P50 million for the PCDSPO is sourced from P200 million of the P500-million confidential and intelligence fund of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission,” Abad reiterated.

“Executive Secretary Ochoa proposed that this P200 million be reallocated for other purposes, such as the finding requirements of the PCDSPO, of the Truth Commission (P83 million) and general administration and support services of the OP,” he added.

In a previous budget hearing where the P4 billion budget for the Office of the President was discussed, Carandang told the House appropriations committee headed by Cavite Rep. Emilio Abaya that he was given a budget of P50 million by Executive Secretary Ochoa.

Carandang and Ochoa belong to opposing groups in Mr. Aquino’s Cabinet. Carandang is identified with the Balay group under the Liberal Party of former Sen. Mar Roxas while Ochoa is with the Samar group that consists of close friends and relatives of the President.

Abad later wrote Abaya seeking a P200-million budget for Carandang’s office, and P50 million for the Truth Commission headed by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

The budget secretary, who belongs to the Balay group along with Carandang, explained that half of the P500-million intelligence fund of the Anti-Transnational Organized Crime Commission would be realigned to provide funds for the two offices.

Coloma’s office, on the other hand, would have control of around P1 billion in combined appropriations for agencies under his department. PCOO manages the state-run television and radio stations, as well as the newswire service Philippine Information Agency.

Carandang denied that there is a feud in the Presidential Communications Group.

“We have our acts together,” he said during the launching of Harvest Hope of the Negrense Volunteers for Change at Beneficial Building in Makati last Saturday evening.

“What happened was it’s a new structure, you took the old OPS (Office of the Press Secretary), you basically divided the functions but it’s very similar to what you see in the US where you have a communications director who takes care of the messaging and a different person running the other government-owned or sponsored media outfits,” Carandang explained.     – With Danny Dangcalan