Senate Finance Committee chairperson Senator Sonny Angara said his committee will favorably consider ‘at the proper time’ a proposal of his fellow senators to restore the P44 million budget cut in the proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President for 2021.
He said they will address this concern when the Finance committee tackles the amendments to the P629-million budget of the Office of VP Leni Robredo.
“But this early, I think it is clear that the support will be overwhelming for the increase in the budget of the Office of the Vice President,” Angara said.
The members of the Senate present, led by the Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, unanimously moved to restore the OVP’s budget request in what Angara described as the “fastest committee hearing of the year.”
Senators Francis Pangilinan, Nancy Binay, Bong Revilla and Lito Lapid also expressed their support for the restoration of the OVP budget to what it submitted to DBM.
“We support the manifestation of the minority leader to restore that particular item, and that based on the COA reports and based on the report of the Vice President, clearly, these resources are put to good use and will definitely go a long way and will not go to waste as the track record and the COA reports have shown,” said Pangilinan.
In the Senate budget hearing, Robredo disclosed that her office has an original budget proposal of P723 million for 2021.
However, she said only P679 was approved by the Department of Budget and Management and submitted as part of the proposed National Expenditure Program.
She said the budget that had been cut was to be used to procure new vehicles to replace the old and unusable cars of the OVP. It was also supposed to be used for research and development purposes.
“We are just appealing to restore the budget cut,” said Robredo during the hearing.
Included in the items that were not considered in the OVPs FY 2021 budget is the allocation for the purchase of six (6) units of motor vehicles amounting to P11 million to replace units which have already reached the end of their estimated useful life.
Drilon told Robredo to submit to the Senate panel the list of the items that were deleted in the original budget of the OVP.
Pangilinan thanked his colleagues for the approval of the proposed augmentation of the OVP budget after Robredo herself faced the Senate Sub-Committee on Finance hearing on Wednesday.
Presenting the accomplishments of her office through their flagship program Angat Buhay, Robredo detailed her office’s efforts to help Filipinos during the COVID-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, Binay also urged her colleagues to push for the designation of the official office or “residence” of the Vice President.
“Let’s give dignity to the Office of the Vice President. Let’s find a permanent home for this office. Let’s put up a plan for this,” Binay said during the virtual hearing on the 2021 proposed budget of the OVP on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agrarian Reform has found an ally in Aklan Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr., who proposed to give the agency an additional P5-billion fund after its budget was cut from P32.9 billion to P8.850 billion for 2021.
Undersecretary for Finance Lucius Junjun Malsi told Haresco that DAR initially requested a budget of P32.9 billion for 2021 but the Department of Budget and Management “enforced” a ceiling of only P8,850,769,000.
But Haresco said he worries that the present budget allocation would adversely affect the agency’s programs and projects, such as the mega-farm project.
Foreign-Assisted and Special Projects Office Undersecretary Bernie Cruz said the agency’s budget for 2021 is not enough to fund the mega farm program that would at least need P5 billion for its implementation.
Last Tuesday, Haresco met with Secretary John Castriciones and other agency officials as well as the committee on appropriations secretariat to push for a possible additional P5-billion funding for DAR for next year.
Haresco, the sponsor of DAR’s 2021 budget, was convinced that the allocation for DAR’s budget was too small to fully implement land distribution and acquisition, and all of its programs and support services projects.
“The funds are too small for the projects and programs of DAR, especially the “Mega Farms” where the farmers and the country will greatly benefit,” he said.
He lamented that many agrarian reform lands have ceased to be productive, citing as an example those located in his province in Aklan.
“Farmer-beneficiaries are no longer using their lands to plant rice,” he said, adding that the mega farm concept could be expected to revive the beneficiaries’ interest in helping the country produce food.
In a related development, the approval by the House of Representatives of the P16.44 billion allocation for the development of barangays that have been cleared of communist rebels is now assured after National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. explained that the funds will be held by implementing agencies and not by the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
In an open letter to the House, Esperon appealed to the congressmen to help hasten barangay development, as the intention is to uplift the lives of thousand families affected by the 50-year communist-led insurgency.
The Makabayan Bloc in the chamber earlier moved to defer the approval of the budget of the NSC and the NICA, claiming that it is a form of pork barrel.
But in his letter, Esperon said the P16.44 billion request of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict is intended for barangay development program.
Esperon also branded as “irresponsible” the allegation of Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite that the NTF-ELCAC has sought funds that are intended to be pork barrel funds.
“His (Gaite’s) statement clearly seeks to undermine the integrity of the administrative mechanisms and audit capabilities of the entire bureaucracy.”
“As vice chairman of the NTF-ELCAC, I have ensured that all its activities have been conducted within the bounds of law. The guiding principle behind the NTF-ELCAC has been the marching orders of the President to ensure Good Governance by way of the delivery of basic services, especially to the countryside,” Esperon added.
President Rodrigo Duterte is the NTF-ELCAC chairman.
Esperon explained that the P16.44 billion budget allotted to NTF- ELCAC is earmarked for barangay development programs that are to be implemented in conflicted and geographically isolated barangays. In particular, the task force has identified 1,431 barangays which have been cleared of New People’s Army influence and are ripe for government intervention.
Esperon also said that 2,379 barangays are still being cleared of communist influence through the Retooled Community Support Program.