A former Manila lawmaker yesterday urged his erstwhile colleagues in Congress to carefully scrutinize the government’s proposed 2015 budget after learning that almost half of the P2.6-trillion budget was in the form of lump sum and automatic appropriations. “The government might put one over us next year and our country really cannot take another DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) controversy,” said former Manila Rep. Benny Abante, who was once vice chairman of the House appropriations committee. Being chairman of the Bayan Mamamayan Abante Movement, the former legislator told Quezon City-based reporters during a media forum that only P1.739 trillion of the proposed General Appropriations Act has details while the remaining funds are automatic appropriations which do not fall under the scrutiny of Congress. According to the veteran legislator, members of the Congress must carefully go over the details of the 2015 budget, as funds could be used to support the campaigns of administration candidates looking to win in the 2016 national elections. “We must remember that the Executive’s traditional source of graft is allocations that are not clear or detailed like automatic or lump sum appropriations, which basically comprise the Executive’s huge pork barrel,” warned Abante. He added: “Keep in mind that the DAP was a lump sum appropriation under the Special Purpose Funds of the President which began in 2012, a year before the 2013 elections.” Where automatic and lump sum appropriations are spent is left to the discretion of agencies to which these are appropriated, such as the Special Purpose Funds of the President, he said. This was also the fear of Social Watch Philippines’ Professor Leonor Magtolis Briones, who argued that the executive branch poured funding into infrastructure projects in 2012 to improve the image of the economy and the Administration in the run up to the 2012 elections. “This is similar to the 2012 budget that preceded the 2013 elections. The government cranks up spending for infrastructure and construction the year before elections. Concrete projects create the impression of growth, though it is a challenge to sustain this growth for the next years,” said Briones, a public administration professor at the University of the Philippines and the former National Treasurer. According to Abante, it was not farfetched for the administration to do the same thing in order for its allies to stay in power. “The Administration has already begun to make life difficult for its political rivals like Vice President Jejomar Binay, whose budget was slashed despite his holding multiple responsibilities,” Abante said. The Office of the Vice President’s budget for 2015 was slashed to P222-million or P9-million lower than the P231 million it requested for 2015, it was learned. tribune.net.ph/metro/2015-lump-sum-budget-could-be-used-for-2016-polls-says-ex-manila-solon
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 08:39:02 +0000