MALACAñANG on Tuesday said Vice President Jejomar Binay’s allegation that only 16 percent of the national budget was left for the next administration was not true.
“Allegations of the government’s ‘mad rush to spend during the election season’ leaving the incoming administration with ‘only 16 percent of the National Budget’ are untrue and without factual basis,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. told reporters.
“These statements only reflect a lack of knowledge and understanding on how the national budget is actually spent.”
Coloma said the Aquino administration had always adhered to the principles of sound fiscal management in handling the people’s funds and would pass on to the incoming administration a financially stable national coffers.
Binay said the incoming administration of presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte would be taking over with only 16 percent or P496 billion of the P3.002-trillion national budget to work with after its predecessor went on a “rushed spending binge,” leaving the new government little room to pursue its priority programs.
Binay said the rushed spending during the Aquino administration’s last months in office would affect Duterte’s ability to pursue his priorities.
“The Aquino administration’s mad rush to spend during the election season has left the incoming administration of… Rodrigo Duterte little room to work on during its first year,” Binay’s spokesman Rico Quicho said.
“After years of underspending, the administration decided to go on a spending binge obviously to swing voters to favor its chosen one but to no avail. Such recklessness will have as its casualty the priorities of the incoming administration,” Quicho said.
Binay’s office said the Department of Budget and Management had released P2.5 trillion or almost 84 percent of the P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016.
However, Coloma said, last week the DBM announced it had already released about P2.5 trillion to government agencies, a sum that represented 83.5- percent of the P3.002-trillion 2016 National Budget.
“In our national budgeting process, the word ‘release’ simply means ‘authority to obligate’ what is in the GAA. It does not equate to disbursements or actual spending as the funds still need to be obligated first before these can be disbursed by the government agencies,” Coloma said.
Coloma also said the complete budgeting process involved three steps: release, obligation and disbursement.
After the budget is released, the concerned government agency must submit and secure approval for a work and financial plan from the DBM and this serves as the basis for obligating certain amounts for specific projects.
Once these projects have been deemed obligated, the agency will secure Notices of Cash Allocation or NCAs from the DBM, which they would present to the Bureau of Treasury to obtain checks.
Out of the total National Budget, about P1.336 trillion or 45 percent are allotted for Personnel Services (P811.8 billion) and Miscellaneous and Other Operating Expenses (P524 billion), which are disbursed monthly and not beyond the schedules.
“Of the total National Budget, about P1.336 trillion or 45 percent are allotted for Personnel Services and Miscellaneous and Other Operating Expenses, which are disbursed monthly based on the existing work and financial plans of government agencies that passed through the scrutiny of Congress during the budget deliberations,” Coloma said.
“While it is true that releases have reached more than P2 trillion, total funds obligated and covered by NCAs or Notices of Cash Allocation reached only P464.33 billion as of the first quarter of the year. Out of this amount, P411.4 billion was utilized to get checks from the Treasury while the remaining P53 billion is still with the agencies.”
In terms of Capital Outlay, the GAA requires all government agencies to comply with existing rules on procurement, such as a schedule of payments for payroll items and the schedule of payments for capital outlay based on the percentage of completion of a particular project.
One of the budgetary reforms implemented by the Aquino administration in 2014 was to treat the GAA itself as the release document, which enabled government agencies to speed up the implementation of vital projects and programs and sustain the growth momentum.
Binay’s camp had previously criticized the Aquino administration’s anemic spending, especially for programs and projects to mitigate the impact of El Niño.
In the 2016 national budget, P19 billion has been allotted for subsidies, alternative livelihood projects, irrigation and other assistance projects for farmers affected by drought.
However, Quicho said Abad refused to release in March the P900 million to the Department of Agriculture for projects intended to mitigate the effects of El Niño.
Quicho said the government’s withholding of the fund led to a bloody and tragic outcome, with two people killed and more than 30 farmers injured during a protest rally in Kidapawan City in April.
Quicho also slammed Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala’s claim that the agency provided seedlings to farmers.
“Our farmers have been starving since December last year. How Secretary Alcala could expect them to plant the seedlings when they are already dying of hunger is beyond me,” he said.
A federation of 60 non-government organizations, meanwhile, appealed to the Aquino administration to come out with complete and detailed explanations on the P1.3-trillion potential state obligations which it did not disclose to the public.
The Balikatan People’s Alliance noted that the potential state obligations were discovered by the Commission on Audit in 2013 but to date, no detailed breakdown had been reported by the government.
Balikatan spokesman Arsenio Antiporda said the non-disclosure even ran counter to Section 7, Article III and Section 28, Article II of the Constitution, which recognizes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.
