Now that President Aquino had expressed his intention to abolish the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), insertions in the budget will become the name of the game as United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) secretary general Toby Tiangco said questionable and highly irregular insertions in the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2014 for next year had started with some P1.9 billion in additional allocation for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). DILG is currently headed by Manuel Roxas II, Liberal Party (LP) president, and the likely standard-bearer of the party that has Aquino as chairman in the 2016 elections. The increase in the DILG budget is seen as part of a nationwide 2016 campaign buildup for the presidency, according to Tiangco. Tiangco revealed that last Thursday Roxas and Budget Secretary Florencio Butch Abad met with members of the LP to discuss the use of P20 billion of the national budget to start campaigning for the 2016 elections through bottom-up budgeting (BUB) involving select civil society groups and local government units. Tiangco said the P1.9 billion insertion is only a speck of the P20 billion national budget earmarked through the bottom-up budgeting (BUB) programs led by Roxas. With the snowballing clamor to abolish the PDAF, Tiangco fears that insertions in the GAA are likely to happen now that Aquino has called for the abolition of the fund, to be replaced by line-item budgets for specific projects in the budget. Tiangco questioned the P1.9 billion additional funding for items which are outside the scope and responsibility of DILG. “I believe this is the first time that the DILG has appointed itself as the champion for climate change, potable water and mass housing. Has the peace and order situation been perfected to allow Super Mar (Roxas) to take on the budget and mandate of other government agencies,” Tiangco said. Tiangco said among the budget insertions include a P76 million appropriation supposedly earmarked for “climate change adaptation”; P573 million for “potable water supply” supposedly intended for waterless municipalities and barangays; and P1.25 billion for housing of informal settlers in Metro Manila. “Looking at the figures alone is a no brainer. That is clearly P1.9 billion in additional budget to the DILG for functions which are already undertaken by other agencies in government,” Tiangco noted. According to Tiangco, if the budget is not strictly scrutinized, the LP would have their own version of PDAF tucked within the regular budget for 2014. “Why would we give extra appropriation to DILG through budgetary support for housing, water system and climate change when there are already budgetary support to key government agencies already handling these concerns? Have climate change and housing already the core competence of DILG?” Tiangco asked. In the proposed budget for next year, around 40,000 families were placed as target recipients of the P1.25 billion allotment for the DILG’s self-initiated housing program. The Palace was quick in defending Roxas saying that the supposed insertion was itemized “and that transparency can readily be seen.” “We are all aware (that) the DILG has been the lead (agency) on the resettlement of informal settlers living along the waterways and in dangerous areas,” Valte said. Housing problems, however, are under the purview of Vice President Jejomar Binay as head of the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) has been mandated by law to perform obligations to address the relocation and the housing programs for informal settlers of Metro Manila. Binay is considered as Roxas’ rival for the presidency in 2016 as the Vice President had indicated his plan to seek the presidency in the next elections. Valte said the reasons for the allotment of the aggregate amount for DILG office under Roxas had been seen as regular and valid because the purpose would be to provide the basic necessities of settlers. “What are those that could be needed (of settlers)? That is not just to resettle them and relocate, (after) building (up of) housing units which, by the way, you also mentioned that the budget for that is there, of course, there is a need of attendant facilities not only those housing as a relocation area,” she said. “Of course, the areas (of relocation) should be live-able where they would be resettle,” Valte said. Bayan Muna Rep. Neri J. Colmenares also asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to look into the spending of presidential pork starting with the Malampaya funds. He said that the Malampaya funds consist of payments of Caltex and Shell to the Philippines for extracting natural gas in Malampaya near the province of Palawan. “It is kept in a special account called Special Account 151 and is not subject to appropriation under the national budget and is the biggest source of presidential pork,” Colmenares said yesterday in a statement. “The law clearly states that proceeds from the Malampaya contract should be spent on “energy related projects” in order to develop our energy capability and lower the cost of electricity. The government has collected a total of P173 Billion since 2002 but instead of turning these over to the general fund these were spent on non energy related projects such as the P900 Million pesos from the DAR which was linked to the Napoles scam and to construct roads for lucky districts. About P 38 Billion have been spent and the remaining P 132 Billion is still in the hands of Pres. Aquino,” Colmenares said. “Particular attention must be devoted in investigating the P 5.8 billion given to the Department of Agriculture as “agricultural guarantee fund” for typhoon victims including the investigation of whether the beneficiaries of this huge amount actually exist. COA must include in its investigation the P7.09 Billion given to build roads in lucky districts favored by the President through the DPWH,” he added. “COA is also asked to investigate where the P745 Billion given to the Department of Health was spent considering that Philhealth cards were once used for patronage politics and electioneering. The P1 Billion given to the AFP Modernization fund should also be scrutinized especially since there was no record of SARO or documents for the release of this fund. COA must find out if these funds were used in the pabaon and pasalubong scam that has been plaguing the AFP for years. COA should also look into the P2.14 Billion given to the PNP supposedly for “disaster preparedness” and check if these were used in the corruption laden contract to buy defective rubber boats,” the progressive solon said. “While the Filipino people suffer under the yoke of very high rates for electricity, the Malampaya fund is being spent on non energy related projects like the P 445 Million spent by Pres. Aquino to buy a US warship. If the Malampaya funds were used to fund sustainable energy projects we would not be suffering the same level of brownouts and high electricity cost that is plaguing the people now” said Rep. Colmenares. “This is the problem with presidential pork and that is why it should be abolished. The people and Congress have no control of the funds, giving the president the power to decide which project to undertake, which Mayor or Congressman to support, and how much. The constitutional provision that Congress has the power of the purse is now only in name, since the national budget is practically controlled by the president through his billions of presidential pork. The pork barrel system, both the congressional and the presidential pork has to be abolished. It has to be abolished now” concluded Rep. Colmenares. Critics have organized a “Million peoples march” today is a bid to pressure the Aquino government to abolish all forms of “pork barrel” in government including calamity funds which are discretionary on the part of the president. Critics of the pork barrel system, meanwhile, was asked to check on the website of the Department of Budget and Management to know where the PDAF of lawmakers were spent. In an apparent attempt to assuage the critics who are now pushing for the abolition of the PDAF, Rep. Arnel Ty of the LPG Marketers Association, a big aggrupation of LPG dealers, said that details of government spending could be seen via the DBM website at pdaf.dbm.gov.ph. Ty, who has a fleet of fire trucks and ambulances, said that the website is for the Filipino people to check on PDAF spending of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. “All the records are there with respect to the PDAF releases per member of Congress from 2009 to 2013,” Ty said. “The specifics include the nature of the project, the recipient, implementing unit, release date and the exact amount disbursed,” the partylist lawmaker added. DBM records show that in 2012, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate received a total of P24.237 billion in PDAF releases. This year, DBM records show that members of Congress have so far received a total of P11.584 billion in PDAF releases. The controversy over the PDAF erupted when a whistleblower came out accusing one Janet Lim Napoles of pocketing some P10-billion from the PDAF of the lawmakers. Napoles was said to be in cahoots with some lawmakers using dubious non-government organizations and Local Government Units in laundering the government funds. Napoles is now being hunted by police authorities even as some lawmakers claimed that some influential persons are cuddling the fugitive of the law. Iloilo Rep. Neil Tupas and Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the partylist Citizenz’ Battle Against Corruption warned that “jail” is waiting for those who are cuddling Napoles. According to Tupas and Tugna, those who are keeping Napoles could be charged with obstruction of justice and as accessories to the crime. Napoles is currently facing charges for kidnapping and illegally detaining her distant relative by the name of Benhur Luy. Luy was the one who blew the issue of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 02:39:37 +0000