STAR: FIRST AQUINO BUDGET LAW
MANILA, DECEMBER 29, 2010 (STAR) COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva - As promised, President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III signed the P1.645-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2011 five days before the current budget year ended. The government's newly approved budget for next year under Republic Act (RA) 10147 became the first statute that President Aquino signed into law after first six months in office.
The President hailed the leaders and members of the 15th Congress for being "punctual" to submit the new budget. For the first time in 11 years, the Chief Executive noted, the national government starts the first day of the New Year with an approved budget. He underscored this in his remarks after the signing ceremonies held last Monday at Malacañang Palace.
What's the big deal about the timing of the early approval of the budget? The national government anyway does not have any problem even if the budget law is not enacted before the year ends. Our 1987 Constitution has provided for "automatic appropriations" of the previous year's budget. The government operates under a "re-enacted" budget to prevent a paralysis of public service if Congress fails to approve a new budget law.
Congress was able to put together on time the new budget law, as per President Aquino's count, after 11 years of re-enacted budget. But wasn't it during these past 11 years, Mr. Aquino was a member of three Congresses past?
He was a three-term Congressman from Tarlac and a Senator for three years in the 14th Congress. So he played, no matter how small, a role why budget laws during the past 11 years were not passed on time.
"The punctual passage of this budget allows us to hit the ground running in implementing our electoral campaign promise to uplift the lives of Filipinos through honest and competent governance," Mr. Aquino pointed out. "The early passage of our Reform Budget for 2011, in and of itself, is a key step towards transforming the way we manage our nation's resources," he cited. We have no quarrel with that. Fine. Well said. Now, let us see how these scarce public funds are utilized in conformity with the provisions of the 2011 GAA as approved by the 15th Congress.
The P1.645 trillion budget for next year is 6.8 percent higher than the P1.54-trillion national budget this year. The lumpsum items include the P21 billion Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program budget under the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); P30.5 billion in Unprogrammed Funds - Support for Infrastructure Projects and Social Programs; the P1 billion fund - subsidy for contingencies, and the P15 billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Support Fund.
The 2011 GAA was approved by both chambers of Congress, as requested by President Aquino, without any major changes or big-time reductions. Except of course, the usual re-alignment of funds after a lot of horse-trading at the Bicameral conference committee.
The bicam, or the so-called "third chamber" of Congress, is where the Senators and members of the House of Representatives conduct their usual give-and-take on their "insertions" in the final print of the budget law, especially with regard to their respective pork-barrel allocations.
After a review by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the Congress-approved budget, President Aquino signed the 2011 GAA with 13 direct vetoes. The President subjected to direct veto budget items on prior legislative authorization for borrowings in excess of the debt ceiling, and legislative consultation during budget execution and project implementation, among them.
DBM Secretary Florencio Abad disclosed that there were 26 other items in the 2011 GAA that were subject to what is called "conditional implementation," or a clarification on how these budget provisions should be implemented. I heard in DZRH radio interview yesterday Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, who is the chairman of the House appropriations committee, that he believes his fellow Congressmen could "live with the vetoes" on the 2011 budget. Abaya, along with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., are the stalwarts of the President's Liberal Party (LP) that is now the ruling majority in Congress.
However, maverick Senator Joker Arroyo issued a press statement yesterday and lashed at President Aquino as "no different" from his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "when it comes to borrowing money." The Senator was piqued anew over the presidential veto on his inserted provision on imposing debt cap.
For budget laws in the past that previous Congresses have approved, the good Senator, along with other like-minded lawmakers have been able to wiggle in the "debt cap" proviso. However, not one of them has succeeded.
A fellow Bicolano lawmaker of Joker, Albay Rep.Edcel Lagman similarly issued a press statement yesterday to express his indignation over the vetoes of the safeguard provisions that the opposition included in the use of CCT and PPP funds in the 2011 budget. As House minority leader, Lagman rued that his colleagues in Congress have virtually surrendered their power of the purse by giving to the Chief Executive a free hand in the use and disbursement of these funds.
Sen. Franklin Drilon, as the chairman of the Senate finance committee that shepherded the budget law for the Senators, has been President Aquino's staunch defender of his first budget law. In fact, Drilon supported the presidential vetoes. As chairman of LP, nothing less is expected from him by Mr.Aquino.
Without going into the nitty-gritty of the vetoed item in the new budget law, a provision was scrapped on lumpsum allocation that requires before any project is executed, the congressman of that district to be consulted. Drilon explained this provision would only delay implementation of priority projects as outlined in the budget.
The Senators and Congressmen are still enjoying their Christmas break and won't be back until Jan. 17 when Congress resumes session. But once they realize how their pork-barrels and congressional insertions under Aquino's first budget law are affected in these presidential vetoes, then we will hear from them soon enough.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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