Billions inserted to make Cha-cha happen? Comelec's 2024 funds under scrutiny
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker has linked the whopping increase to the Commission on Election's funds for the holding of plebiscites and referendum in 2024 to the lower chamber's freshly revived campaign to amend the Constitution.
Independent minority congressman Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay, 1st District) flagged the bicameral conference committee’s insertion of P12 billion in the 2024 budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) — arguing that the funds parked under the Comelec’s conduct and supervision of elections, referenda, recall votes and plebiscites will be used to bankroll lawmakers’ “Charter change rampage.”
Lagman’s accusation has since triggered a heated exchange between him and House appropriations chair Rep. Elizaldy Co (AKO Bicol Partylist), who insisted that lawmakers added the additional P12 billion upon the request of the Comelec and not to “push or finance proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.”
This spat over the electoral body’s use of public funds is taking place amid reports from different sources that House lawmakers are facilitating a people’s initiative drive to amend the Charter and allegedly mobilize local executives to collect signatures through P100 payouts. This claim of vote-buying, said Lagman, was based on three mayors who refused to join the scheme, while a different group of mayors from Albay have denied the allegation.
What the budget shows
According to the proposed and final versions of the 2024 outlay, Comelec had initially been allocated just P2.2 billion in 2024 for the conduct of elections and plebiscites — an amount not far off from the P2.5 billion it originally requested from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
In the last five years, this particular line item had received around or nearly the same amount as what Comelec requested — specifically, P2.2 billion in 2023 and 2022, P2.1 billion in 2021 and P1.9 billion in 2020 and 2019.
In the final 2024 budget, the allocation for the item on plebiscites had ballooned to P14 billion, triggering Lagman to flag the whopping amount inserted by the bicam, which deliberates on the budget behind closed doors.
In a statement on January 9, Lagman noted that the final amount of P14 billion was bigger than the total budget of at least five departments — the Department of Migrant Workers (P9.8 billion), Department of Agrarian Reform (P8.1 billion), Department of Trade and Industry (P8.6 billion), the Department of Tourism (P3.4 billion) and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (P3.3 billion).
Co, who sat as a member of the bicam, said that the P12 billion added to the Comelec’s P2 billion fund for plebiscites was made upon the poll body’s request to restore the funding slashed by the DBM.
“The Comelec and Chairman George Garcia were grateful to the Bicam team for accommodating their request. You can ask them,” Co said in Filipino, adding that it was Garcia who “personally appealed” for the additional funds.
Co added: “This is Comelec’s budget. No other agency, not even Congress, can touch or release even one centavo of it. Is Congressman Lagman saying that Comelec commissioners would use those funds for charter change? If he can’t prove it, then he better shut up,” he stressed.
Co also said that that is a need for special election funds to replace the House representative of districts where lawmakers recently passed away or got expelled, as well as a budget for special referendums.
“Districts who lose representation for one reason or another deserve to have special elections where they can choose their leaders. That’s the purpose of the budget for the 'Conduct and supervision of elections, referenda, recall votes and plebiscites,'” Co said.
What Comelec says
Lagman said, citing a “mutual friend’s” conversation with Garcia, that Comelec did not ask for the “furtive and malevolent” P12 billion insertion to their fund for plebiscites.
In his statement, Lagman said:
“I have asked Chairman Garcia, through a mutual friend, whether he requested this huge increase, and he said no. Following is the record of the pertinent conversation:
“Magandang hapon! Chairman G (Chairman George Garcia) pinapatanong ni Cong ECL (Edcel C. Lagman) if you or the Commission requested the 12B inserted nung Bicam? Tatanungin ka na rin namam ng media re that.
Chairman Garcia: Hindi pre. Kaya lang dun sa presidents budget tinaggalan kami ng 17.4b kaya binalik lang ung tinaggal na pauli ulit naming cnasabi sa budget hearing n sana maibalik. Kaya kulang pa ng 5.4b.”
Lagman added: “This P12-B insertion was not in response to the Comelec’s request to restore its budget which was reduced in the submission of the National Expenditure Program (NEP). What was given to Comelec was not requested by it in the form of additional appropriation for the charter change agenda.”
House Speaker Martin Romualdez said in December that the House will be tackling proposed amendments to the Constitution once session resumes January 22.
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