Senate to start budget debates

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has started plenary debates on the P1.8-trillion proposed national budget for 2012.

In his sponsorship speech yesterday, Senate committee on finance chairman Franklin Drilon laid out the senators’ amendments to the House version of the 2012 national budget, including a provision that would allow the judiciary and other constitutional offices to use savings from unfilled positions.

The creation of the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) is considered one of the most controversial provisions in the budget bill, as it would impound some P5.025 billion, a move which the judiciary and constitutional offices claim to be unconstitutional.

The Senate version of the bill allows the judiciary and other constitutional offices to use the savings from unfilled positions, provided that it would be used only for the construction of the Manila Hall of Justice and the maintenance of other halls of justice in the country as well as the buildings housing the Sandiganbayan, Court of Tax Appeals, Court of Appeals, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Audit (COA), Commission on Elections and the Office of the Ombudsman.

“The generation and use or abuse of savings, which made possible anomalous practices such as the conversions and the pabaon (sendoff) systems in the AFP, is sought to be checked. Under this budget, personal services were all funded based only on filled positions to prevent abuse in the use of savings from unfilled positions,” Drilon said. 

He noted that the judiciary alone generates over P1.985 billion annually in savings for its 5,539 unfilled positions while the COA has around P1.8 billion in savings at its disposal.

The Senate panel also recommended a reduction in the discretionary funds of the office of the governor and vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao by P96.943 million and P4 million, respectively.

A total of P37.532 million was likewise recommended for realignment from the budget of the Southern Philippines Development Authority, which Drilon said “has totally failed in its mandate as an economic office for Mindanao notwithstanding its existence for several years.”

For the conditional cash transfer program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Senate committee proposed the realignment of P800 million in administrative cost to augment the funds for the cash grants and increase the beneficiaries by 61,538 households.

In order to support the goal of the administration of rice self-sufficiency by 2013, the committee recommended the restoration of P811 million in irrigation projects that was removed by the House in its version.

For the PAMANA program, which is an inter-agency program to build peaceful communities in 1,921 conflict-affected barangays in 171 municipalities in 34 provinces, the committee recommended the deletion of P138.3 million for administrative cost because it will be implemented by the existing personnel of the agencies involved.

The committee also rejected the decision of the House to increase the budget of the Department of Justice (DOJ) by P200 million for its Justice System Infrastructure Program and P100 million for its building.

Drilon said that his committee also recommended a P33 million cut in the DOJ’s National Justice Information System program.

“With this proposed national budget, we say no to budgeting methods that do not foster transparency and accountability. We say no to debilitating poverty that slowly saps the life out of the truly poor and vulnerable through better targeting systems. We say no to unbridled graft and corruption that consigns our people to perpetual backwardness and underdevelopment,” he said.

“We say yes to sustained and equitable economic growth. Yes to a budget that would empower every Juan to eventually reap its benefits and yes to a budget that is truly biased for the poor,” he added.