The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
The approval of next year’s budget before the end of the year has become a certainty, with the Senate practically railroading it—members of the chamber approved the budget proposal on second and third readings on the same day—despite many questions raised by several experts and even some senators themselves.
The approved Senate budget version was P19 billion more than that of the House of Representatives, pushing the total to P3.002 trillion.
Questions raised by Santiago on the “various pork-barrel components” of the appropriations bill did not stop the Senate plenary from voting 14-1 to approve it.
Santiago had identified lump-sum appropriations worth P108.1 billion “in contestable allocations” and exhibiting “the characteristics” of the outlawed Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in the 2016 national budget.
The bicameral conference on the budget is expected next week after which it will be signed by President Aquino in December.
Under the Senate-approved budget, the Department of Education (DepEd) has the biggest allocation, with P411.89 billion, 28 percent higher than the 2015 budget; the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), with P382.42 billion; Department of National Defense (DND), with P126.64 billion; the Department of Health (DOH), with P124. 76 billion; and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), with P124.26 billion.
Santiago proposed to both the Senate and the House to disapprove some special provisions in the budget proposal that “unconstitutionally and unlawfully” authorize some heads of agencies in the Executive branch to modify and realign the program, projects or activities after the same has been authorized by Congress through its enactment of the General Appropriations Act (GAA). Not even the President as head of the Executive branch could do that, she said.
The senator also urged Congress to “totally reject the redefinition of savings, which exacerbates the unconstitutional provisions of the 2015 GAA and willfully ignores the three decisions of the Supreme Court on the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) and DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program).”
She said: “The Supreme Court declared the PDAF and DAP as unconstitutional. However, PDAF-like items are still embedded in the 2016 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). This is made justifiable by the redefinition of ‘savings’ in the provisions of the bill,” Santiago said.
“The definition of savings (Sections 65 and 66 of the General Provisions) skirts the Supreme Court ruling against the DAP. The High Court ruled that savings can be declared only when there are still funds available after the final discontinuance or abandonmen of the project, activity, or program (PAP).
“I, therefore, propose that the definition of savings as reflected in the 2014 GAA and as expounded by the Supreme Court be incorporated in the 2016 GAA, in lieu of the present definition in the 2016 GAB,” Santiago said.