‘P45 B in budget lump sums part of Mar’s campaign war chest’

MANILA, Philippines - Some P45 billion in lump sums under the so-called Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) provisions in the budget program for this year and for 2016 will be used to boost the presidential bid of Manuel Roxas II, an opposition lawmaker said yesterday.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon raised the issue during plenary debates on the proposed budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which Roxas headed until last month.

“There is a reason why Roxas has been going around the country in the past months to promote BUB and even inaugurate BUB projects in the past months,” Ridon said.

“The Aquino administration is hyping the so-called grassroots approach to budgeting under the BUB program. However, looking at the regional budget allocation for BUB projects would show that its ulterior purpose is to boost Mar Roxas’ candidacy through patronage politics,” he said.

He said huge BUB funds have been allotted to traditional bailiwicks of President Aquino and Roxas, such as Central Luzon, which received a total of P1.6 billion in BUB projects spread over several agencies in 2015, and P1.9 billion in 2016.

This was also the case for Region VI (Panay), which received a total of P1.8 billion worth of BUB projects this year, and P2.1 billion for 2016, he said.

Vote-rich Region VII, where Cebu is located, got the largest chunk of the BUB budget. In 2015, the region received a total of P1.9 billion in BUB funds, which will only get bigger in 2016, with a total allocation of P2.3 billion, the highest allocation among all regions.– With Ding Cervantes