THE budget for the office expenses of politicians should shrink once the government shifts to federalism, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said Friday.
Under the administration party’s proposed federal setup, the 24-member Senate will expand into a 33-member chamber as each federal region will be represented by three senators.
Pimentel also said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s party mates who have been pushing for the shift to federalism were uncertain if the party-list setup should be kept under the proposed new charter.
“The party-list is really valuable especially in representing the marginalized sector, but it has been hijacked to the point that only the rich people run as party-list representatives,” Pimentel told dzMM radio.
“Some of our party mates are also turned off by the hijacked party-list system.”
Pimentel said the public should not worry about the possibility of spending more taxpayers’ money on the salaries of politicians.
“The power these officials hold now will be different under federalism because some of their responsibilities will be delegated to other officials,” he said.
“Therefore, the maintenance budget of their offices should be reduced and transferred to other officials.
Pimentel said the regional governments would also be allowed to abolish several offices to save funds.
Under federalism, the national government would be in charge of security, foreign affairs and banking so each region would not need to spend funds on those areas, Pimentel said.
The national government could also spend less as the programs and concerns on education would be delegated to the regions, he said.
Under the current Constitution, the government must allot the biggest chunk of the annual budget to the Education Department.
But Pimentel’s willingness to cut allocations for politicians is not yet set in stone as the legislative branch has yet to agree on the constitutional changes that will be made should Congress convene as a constituent assembly.