Contact Details

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

Press Statements

 

                                                            LAGMAN: APPROPRIATIONS BILL

                                                             A COPYCAT OF NOY’S BUDGET

 

          The General Appropriations Bill (GAB) which will be submitted to a vote on third reading is the handiwork of Malacanang, and not the output of the House of Representatives.

         The GAB is a virtual copycat of the President’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) with no substantial amendments adopted from the submissions of House members, except the special provisions on the itemization of the P21-billion Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and the creation of an oversight committee on the CCT as endorsed by the Minority.

         Whatever changes effected in budgetary allocations were at the instance of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) through a series of errata.

         Unless the Majority in the House would realize that they have abdicated the Congressional power of independently appropriating the national budget, the tyranny of numbers will pass the GAB on third reading even as the Majority will preside upon a self-derogation of the legislative authority over the public purse.

--------------------------------

Link:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/08/10/house-approves-2011-budget

-------------------------------

Press Statements

 

BISHOPS SEE PHANTOM JAILERS

 

        After withdrawing their threat to excommunicate RH advocates, including President Benigno Aquino III, some bishops are reportedly threatening to risk being jailed in a renewed offensive against the RH bill.

         Bishops and lay leaders see phantom jailers when there are none.

         No one will be jailed for opposing the RH bill in good faith and promoting Catholic dogma as an antidote to contraceptives and modern family planning. Instructive debates and constructive criticisms are material to legislation.

         The central agenda of the RH bill is freedom of informed choice and there will neither be reward nor compulsion for being an acceptor of family planning.

         Option is the rule on whether or not couples and women would adopt a particular family planning method of their choice.

         The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has unfortunately reiterated its objection to a group or collective dialogue with legislators supporting the RH bill, and has renewed its bias for parochial one-on-one talks between bishop and legislator apparently to maintain ascendancy or influence over individual members of Congress on a selective basis.

         The claim that the RH advocacy is being funded by an international lobby is completely baseless and malicious.

         House Bill No. 96 and its precursors since the 11th Congress, and all the current RH bills in the 15th Congress, were visualized, crafted and prepared solely by legislators and local private sector affiliates with neither intervention nor funding from international organizations.

         The RH bill is a purely Philippine initiative in recognition of the critical need to promote reproductive health anchored on protection of human rights, enhancement of maternal and infant health, and attaining sustainable human development.

Press Statements

 

             The continuing appreciation of the peso to the US dollar, which is expected to level at no less than P42:$1 at yearend, will generate P12.855 billion in savings in debt service interest payments.

 This would enable the House of Representatives to cut debt service by P12.8 billion and realign the liberated amount to education, health and infrastructure.

 The impact on debt service interest payments is P2.571 billion for every peso appreciation.

 The assumption of the peso-US dollar exchange rate is P45-47 to a dollar in the preparation of the National Expenditure Program for 2011.

 If the peso appreciates to P42:$1, then at the high end the net savings in interest payment would be P12.855 billion.

 The House should not be cowed by the Executive from slashing the interest payment for debt service because the reduction is justified and the realignment is imperative.

 The Congress should not be timid in exercising its constitutionally mandated power of the purse.