SENATORS and congressmen now have “unlimited pork” after Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno removed the cap on project allocations”•such as the P70 million for congressmen and P200 million for senators.
Now up for grabs is a total of P860.7 billion for infrastructure projects.
And today, Monday, the country’s economic managers led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Diokno will be in Congress as the House begins its deliberations on President Duterte’s P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.
Diokno said there was “no pork” in the national budget in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Allocation Program, portions of which were declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
“It is still pork by any other name. Congressmen are still allowed to identify and endorse projects without a ceiling,” said ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, an ally of the President.
Diokno said while the ceiling for project allocations had been removed, there was “no hard and fast rule” as to how much the lawmakers could request in funding for projects in their respective districts.
He said it would be the Department of Budget and Management that will reject or approve the projects to be endorsed by lawmakers.
He said the total infrastructure spending for 2017 amounted to P860.7 billion, or about 5.4 percent of the gross domestic product.
Lawmakers may have to go through the heads of agencies, such as the Departments of Public Works and Highways and Transportation, to request for projects.
“They may go to some heads of agencies and ask for projects, but there is no hard and fast rule how much they will get,” Diokno said.
He said lawmakers must make sure the projects they wanted funded should cater to the needs of their constituents.
Tinio, a member of the eight-member Makabayan bloc that belongs to the supermajority coalition, said the Makabayan had maintained its position rejecting the pork barrel as this had always been used for “political patronage.”
Tinio said some of the 293 House members had already submitted their requests for projects.
“While it is true that Congress could no longer be given projects post-enactment of the budget, which the SC found illegal, the danger here is the funds would be dangled like carrot and stick that could be used for political considerations,” Tinio said.
He said even if the Makabayan bloc was a member of the majority, the members would continue to scrutinize the budget and ensure there would be no lump sum appropriations.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexie Nograles, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said the 105-member panel would work overtime to beat the Sept. 13 deadline of passing the budget in the committee level so that the Senate could also start deliberating on the budget.
Nograles said the panel had 24 vice chairmen and 80 members.
Diokno said the P860.7-billion budget for infrastructure was only a down payment of the P7-trillion budget for infrastructure in the six years of the Duterte administration.
“It will be the golden age of infrastructure in the country,” Diokno said.
“We will address all the needs of all the people of the Philippines, not only in Metro Manila.”