A day after calling out the Office of the President's P4.5-billion intelligence budget, Senator Panfilo Lacson vowed to scrutinize the 2021 National Expenditures Program (NEP).
Lacson said he would focus on “reappropriations” and “lump sum appropriations” involving infrastructure projects under the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH).
The senator said it involved the initial amount of P73.5 billion covering 2,933 items, which has now ballooned to P135.8 billion involving 5,913 projects.
He noted that this effectively increased the total questionable appropriations to P532.3 billion from the initial P469 billion that the Senate exposed earlier including lump sums in the amount of P396.4 billion.
“Considering the projects under ‘Operations’ in the proposed budget of the DPWH, has a total appropriation of P613.1 billion, easily 87 percent or P532.3 billion is deemed questionable,” Lacson said.
The Palace remained silent on the intel funds issue on Monday, but defended the P16.44 billion budget proposed for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for 2021, disputing allegations that the anti-insurgency projects may be used as a pork barrel.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque made the statement in response to an opposition lawmaker’s call for the removal of NTF-ELCAC’s P16.44 billion budget.
Among the projects under the program are the establishment of farm-to-market roads, barangay health centers, and school buildings, Roque said.
Earlier, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said the P16.44 billion fund allocated for the Support to the Barangay Development Program of the NTF-ELCAC is not a pork barrel and will not in any way serve as the Duterte administration’s election war chest for the 2022 polls.
Taking Lacson's lead, the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives also questioned the Office of the President's proposed P4.5 billion budget for intelligence and confidential funds.
At the budget hearing of the House committee on appropriations, Rep. Sarah Elago of Kabataan said the funds were huge, making up more than 54 percent of the whole budget of the President’s office for next year.
Under the 2021 national spending plan, the OP proposed a budget of P8.23 billion for next year. The amount is lower than this year's P8.25 billion. Of the total amount for next year's budget, P2.25 billion is allocated for confidential funds while another P2.25 billion for intelligence funds.
"Is it appropriate for the OP to ask for a P12.98 million per day budget for this 'blank budget' when it can instead be used to purchase personal protective equipment (PPEs), testing kits, and widening the capacity of the country’s public health system amid the pandemic," Elago said.
Deputy Executive Secretary for Internal Audit Alberto Bernardo said the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing terrorist threats, such as the Sulu bombing, would explain why the OP need a large budget for intelligence and its confidential fund.
He also said cybersecurity should also be improved amid the pandemic.
The approbations committee later on approved the OPs proposed budget for next year.
This developed as Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City urged Congress to increase the 2021 budget for the office of Vice President Leni Robredo by P113 million.
During the appropriations committee meeting on the OVP outlay, Rodriguez proposed the restoration of P41 million to the P720 million budget proposal Robredo’s office has submitted to the Department of Budget and Management, which reduced it to P679 million.
In addition to restoring the P41 million, the Mindanao lawmaker suggested that the OVP funding be augmented by 10 percent of its original proposal or by P72 million, for a total of P113 million.
He said this would go a long way in providing funds to the OVP to carry out its regular programs and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He noted that the OVP budget was the smallest allocation in the proposed P4.5 trillion 2021 budget.
In other developments:
* The Office of Ombudsman has expressed disappointment over its budget slash for 2021, saying it violates the 1987 Constitution and the Ombudsman Act of 1989.
Assistant Ombudsman Weomark Layson told the Senate budget hearing on the Ombudsman’s proposed P3.36 billion budget, lower than its 2020 budget of P4.105 billion.
“Our budget is lower by P742 million compared with our current budget which is not in accordance with fiscal autonomy as provided by the Constitution and Republic Act 6770,” he said.
* Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) violated the constitutional provision on fiscal autonomy of the Commission on Audit (COA), a constitutional body, when it did not automatically release its additional budget of P173 million.
Drilon said this as he strongly urged the COA to uphold and defend its fiscal autonomy.
“The action of the executive branch on this point is not consistent with the Constitution, to say it very kindly. The COA is one of the constitutional bodies which enjoy fiscal autonomy,” said Drilon during the Senate committee on finance’s hearing on the 2021 proposed budget of COA.
Drilon also branded as overpriced the purchese of the DBM-Procurement Service of medical supplies, saying P422 million in taxpayers’ money would have been saved if the department exercised due diligence.