The trillion budget and the NBN billions

With the budget just approved and signed in Malacañang, Filipinos are now witness to ongoing news and discussions about this 2008 trillion-budget as well as the continuing Senate investigation into the alleged billion-commissions related to the NBN-ZTE deal.

Our people may be interested to understand the meaning and relation of the alleged US$ 130M-commission allegedly requested by former Comelec Abalos to the present trillion-budget. Our people may also wish to understand the meaning of the so-called "success fee" of $1.6 million of Leo Guevara San Miguel from the NBN deal.

If the alleged commissions of Mr. Abalos and the success fee of Mr. San Miguel were combined, the total would be more than P6.5 billion pesos. What if the NBN billions of pesos of alleged commissions and success fees were instead allocated for the needy Filipinos, how many millions of our people would have been given food, jobs, wages, houses, textbooks and more welfare provisions?

Let us examine first the reported welfare items in the 2008 budget. The Department of Education has an allocation of P140.24 billion, the Department of Agriculture P24.71 billion and the Department of Health P19.77 billion. On the other hand, the DPWH gets P94.73 billion, the Department of Interior and Local Government P53.24 billion, and the National Defense P50.93 billion.

Agriculture and Health get less budget compared to DPWH’s infrastructure (roads and bridges), less billions than for the DILG, for local government-related budget, and definitely, so much less than what the military will be getting.

Lest this government again claim, without proof, that education is now being prioritized receiving the most billions in the 2008 budget, let us demand how this huge billion-peso education budget will be spent. Let us confirm whether in fact, the billions will seep to the students and the teachers. Let us demand and stay vigilant that the billions for education will not be spent in unnecessary, unreasonably expensive, and not urgent education technology infrastructure that may find links with padded commissions, “patong or tongpats,” or greed of a few somehow along the budget trail.

Definitely this government will claim that the huge education budget will be GMA’s gift to the students and teachers all throughout this country. With so much of the truth behind the aborted NBN-ZTE deal still to be unearthed and still unexplained, vigilant Filipinos should continue to check whether the billion education budget will truly be spent for most of the millions of education-needy Filipinos or for certain vested interests.

Is this education budget a clean deal? Is this education budget not bloated to include “commissions” or “tongpats” or “greed”? The same questions can be asked of all other budget allocations by this present government.

As noted earlier, the alleged $130M commission for Comelec Abalos from the NBN-ZTE deal is worth about P6.5 billion ( given the dollar exchange rate of P50=US$1 at that time). This alleged commission for only one government official is about 22% or more than 1/5, in fact, close to ¼ of the present 2008 education budget!

Can you imagine the discrepancy of billions of pesos going only to one person vs. billions going to millions of Filipinos? Can you imagine more billions of pesos going to only a few private and public individuals vs. billions that rightly belong to the millions of Filipinos in this country?

 Can you further imagine how much P6.5 billion commission can do for our country? With that amount, can you imagine how many students can benefit, how many more schools and classrooms can be built, how many teachers will receive much-awaited salary increase, how many more textbooks and even computers can be prepared for our needy schoolchildren?

 Or can you imagine how much food for millions of hungry and poor Filipinos a P6.5 billion commission for one government official can buy? How many loans can P6.5 billion give to our food producers, to our farmers and fisherfolk?

Can you continue to imagine how many Filipinos can be given jobs and wages if the 6.5 billion of pesos went instead to our people rather than to one government official?

 Even a $ 1.6 million success fee can translate into so much welfare and services for our needy Filipinos!

 Ordinary Filipinos who have nothing, no jobs, no wages, no food, no homes can imagine perhaps up to thousands of pesos in their lifetime. Billions and trillions of pesos are beyond their league, they will say.

 However, our millions of Filipinos have to be constantly informed that these billions and trillions of public funds rightly belong to them, to all the Filipino people, not to certain evil and greedy people in government and in the private sector.

 Let the unfolding of the truth behind these alleged bribes and commissions as well as the trillion budget continue so that the Filipino people can regain and claim back what is rightfully theirs, not only in terms of money but in terms of transparent, honest, God-fearing governance.

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