The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Luis Leoncio
The P3.35-trillion proposed budget for next year will contain P80-million appropriations for each legislator but these will not be pork-barrel allocations since they will be incorporated as specific items in the draft budget, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.
Some members of the House of Representatives have alleged that the pork-barrel system is being revived in the Duterte administration’s budget for next year through P80 million in lump sums for each lawmaker.
Even returning Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Malacanang should not allow legislators to propose directly projects for funding under the budget as this would be tantamount to reviving the pork-barrel system.
Diokno said the alleged “P80-million pork barrel per lawmaker” in the proposed 2017 budget is merely hypothetical.
He said he wanted the national budgets under the Duterte administration to be strictly compliant with the Supreme Court decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
The PDAF or pork barrel refers to lump-sum, discretionary funds of members of the legislature; it has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on November 19, 2013, mainly for the violation of the principle of separation of powers.
“Any law that empowers individual legislators to interfere in the implementation or enforcement of the budget violates this principle and is, therefore, unconstitutional,” the high court ruled. It added that after the national budget is passed, members of Congress may only scrutinize and investigate the way it is enforced and implemented.
“Although the main function of a legislator is to make laws, he or she is not prohibited from proposing to the head of the agencies programs, activities or projects that his or her constituents brought to his or her attention to be financed by the national government,” Diokno said.
“It must be remembered that legislators are representatives of their constituents and are thus, in the best position to determine the needs of their people. To be able to serve well their constituents and to maximize the salaries given to them, members of Congress, as representatives of the people, can ensure that the needs of their legislative district or party-list are met by the national government,” he added.
“Further, the funding for such programs, activities or projects will not be released to the individual legislator but to the agencies that incorporated them in their respective budget”, Diokno said.
Diokno said it was clear from the PDAF case that what is prohibited is post-enactment intervention by legislators.
“Any participation such as proposing programs, activities or projects to head of agencies, which may be adopted or not, will be included in the proposed 2017 budget line by line stipulating the amount per proposed program, activity or project. This is not prohibited by law and, in fact, is an affirmation of the power of the purse given to Congress,” Diokno added.
The Duterte administration’s planned infrastructure buildup will result in a budget deficit this year exceeding 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which was the limit under the Aquino administration, Diokno added as he also noted slower revenue collection thus far in the year.
Diokno said that among the changes to be incorporated in the budget next year and which is now being revamped from the draft of the Aquino administration is the discontinuation of the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB) scheme created by his predecessor, Florencio Abad, which budget watchdogs have described as a resurrection of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Diokno said the BuB was “a waste of public money” since this was employed for political purposes.”