Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

No Malacanang-sponsored budgetary outlay is sacrosanct

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Tel No. 4155455
  • Mobile No. 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
  • 19 September 2011

  

              No Malacañang-sponsored budgetary outlay is sacrosanct as to be spared from the scalpel which the Congress ought to wield to independently exercise its ascendant power over appropriations.

 

               The “small committee” of the House of Representatives which was constituted to consider individual amendments from Representatives must have enough courage and will to repel the importuning of the Executive of wrestling control from the legislature in the enactment of the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

 

               It borders on condescension for administration officials and allies to insist that Congress must maintain intact the President’s pet triumvirate allocations for Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), counterpart funding for Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) which includes the sequestered funds for unfilled positions in the Judiciary, Congress and Constitutional Commissions.

 

               The 2012 CCT budget has inordinately ballooned to P39.4 billion from the current P21.1 billion or an increase of 86%. This huge escalation is being pursued in the absence of an impact assessment study on the effectivity of CCT as a component of the poverty alleviation agenda and despite nationwide complaints of flawed implementation.

 

                The proposed P22.1 billion PPP government counterpart is 76.8% higher than the 2011 allocation of P12.5 billion despite anemic implementation with no project having been bid out after 15 months.

 

                 The impoundment of the funds for unfilled positions, which were previously appropriated in the separate budgets of co-equal bodies and Constitutional Commissions enjoying fiscal autonomy, violates the Constitution.

 

                 The President’s NEP is not cast on stone and is not untouchable by the Congress.

 

                  Neither is the NEP a perfect formulation of budgetary priorities and allocations nor a magnum opus of unparalleled excellence which cannot be amended, modified and realigned by the Congress.

 

                 The challenge to the “small committee”, which is composed of Appropriations Chairman Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, Senior Vice Chairman Jocelyn S. Limkaichong, Vice Chairman Rolando G. Andaya, Jr. (former DBM Secretary), Deputy Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman, is to adopt amendments upholding the supremacy of Congress over the enactment of the national budget.