HOUSE CAN LIVE W/ BUDGET VETO / LAGMAN: AQUINO HAS USURPED CONGRESS
[PHOTO COURTESY OF MALAYA BIZ INSIGHTS - Philippine President Benigno Aquino salutes at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) anniversary in Manila. Aquino signed into law on Monday a massive 1.645 trillion-peso (37.3 billion-US dollar) budget for 2011 which he said was designed to fight poverty and spur development. NEWS REPORT FROM MALAYA BELOW TODAY'S NEWS RELEASES]
MANILA, DECEMBER 29, 2010 (STAR) The House of Representatives will not try to overturn President Aquino's veto of 13 provisions in the approved P1.645-trillion national budget for next year.
Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, House appropriations committee chairman, told The STAR they could live with the vetoed provisions.
"Anyway, they are only minor and will not affect the implementation of the spending program," he said.
Abaya said some provisions were "directly vetoed," meaning they were deleted from the national budget, while others were subject of a "conditional veto" and their implementation would depend on certain conditions.
"I intend to sit down with Budget Secretary Butch Abad soon to discuss the provisions subjected to a conditional veto so we could explore a common ground," he said.
Abaya said Abad cited the rejected provision requiring consultation with lawmakers on budget implementation.
"We can certainly find an acceptable mechanism for efficient and transparent implementation," he said.
The Senate-sponsored section limiting government borrowings to 55 percent of gross domestic product (the value of products and services produced in the country in a given year) would be impossible to implement since loans are now equivalent to about 57 percent of GDP, Abaya said.
Other vetoed provisions are:
• The use of savings from the P22-billion conditional cash transfer for education and health;
• The grant of preference to insurgency-infested communities in the cash transfer program;
• Budgetary support to the Development Academy of the Philippines;
• Financial assistance to a certain Partido Development Administration in the Bicol region; and
• Benefits for National Power Corp. personnel separated from the service as a result of the firm's dissolution.
Aquino apparently did not veto the few fund realignments made by Congress, including an additional P590 million for the House and about P400 million for the Senate, P200 million in pork barrel funds for Vice President Jejomar Binay and provisions for the hiring of an additional 5,000 public school teachers.
Abaya said this was the first time that the national budget was signed during the year that Congress approved it.
Aquino, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and other leaders of Congress did not want the nation to run on a reenacted budget on Jan. 1 because "a reenacted budget does not promote good governance," he added.
During former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's nine years in office, the budget was either recycled for the entire year or Congress approved it late.
'Congress emasculated'
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman believes Aquino has emasculated the power of Congress to enact the national budget.
In a statement, Lagman said the 2011 General Appropriations Act (GAA) was "a subservient copycat of the President's National Expenditure Program."
"This completed the emasculation of the independent congressional power to enact the annual appropriations," he said.
Lagman said the Office of the President virtually appropriated the national budget through a rubber stamp majority in the Congress.
"For the first time in Philippine legislative history after martial law, Malacañang has effectively transformed Congress into a colossal subservient and faithful photocopying machine — reproducing the NEP in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) almost in the entirety of the President's proposal, with minimal realignments but with an exact total of P1.645 trillion as reflected in the President's original submission," he said.
Malacañang has "a categorical and persistent instruction to leave the National Expenditure Program untouched and undiminished, effectively subverting the power of Congress, particularly the House, over the public purse" as enshrined and mandated in the Constitution, Lagman said.
A total of P750 million was slashed from the school building program, which is already inadequate to respond to the huge classroom backlog.
This amount was realigned to 5,000 additional teacher positions which should have been funded from the CCT since education is an allied program.
Deles: Budget to fuel reforms
Presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Quintos-Deles believes the 2011 national budget will fuel Aquino's reforms and promote the administration's peace agenda.
"Part of the budget will be used to implement PAMANA (Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan), which is the government's flagship program to help empower internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other families living in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao," she said.
Deles said the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process was allocated P235 million for peace negotiations and parallel efforts like humanitarian, rehabilitation and development programs in next year's national budget.
PAMANA will engage all government agencies, as well as civil society groups, in promoting community resilience to conflict and strengthening the people's capacity to address issues of conflict and peace, she added.
Joker criticizes Aquino's vetoes
Sen. Joker Arroyo criticized Aquino yesterday for vetoing the debt cap on the P1.645-trillion budget for next year.
"Presidents Noynoy and GMA are no different when it comes to borrowing money," he said. "They think alike."
Arroyo said Aquino and former president Arroyo vetoed exactly the same limitations imposed by the 14th Congress and the present 15th Congress.
"Both presidents do not want to limit their borrowing power," he said.
"What is wrong with that? The provision does not tie the hands of the President to borrow. All he has to do is to ask Congress to increase the 55 percent of GDP to say, 60 percent of GDP."
Arroyo said Aquino could have used his undue advantage at the House of Representatives and the Senate if he wanted an increase in the debt cap.
"After all, President Aquino has a lopsided 80 percent control of both Houses of Congress, and he can always get what he wants. Even the 2011 Noynoy budget is a plagiarism of the GMA 2010 budget," he said. — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Christina Mendez
FROM MALAYA BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Lagman: Aquino has usurped Congress BY WENDELL VIGILIA
HOUSE minority leader Edcel Lagman yesterday lashed at President Aquino for turning Congress into a rubber stamp and giving marching orders to lawmakers to pass a "subservient copycat" of his National Expenditure Program under the P1.645 trillion national budget for 2011.
The leader of the House opposition bloc said Malacañang has "effectively transformed the Congress into a colossal subservient and faithful photocopying machine."
Lagman said that because of the executive's interference, not a single centavo was cut from the original budget proposal, especially the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the P15-billion public-private partnership (PPP) program.
He said this is a far cry from the Arroyo administration whose budget was reduced by P400 million in 2010; P300 million in 2009; P300 million in 2008m and P200 million in 2007.
Lagman also noted that Congress realigned only P2.306 billion, around 1 percent of the P1.645 trillion budget.
He said this is a miniscule amount compared to the realignments made by previous Congresses: P67.1 billion in 2010; P56.5 billion in 2009; P38.5 billion in 2008; and P20.5 billion in 2007.
"We might as well have a requiem for the demise of the congressional power to appropriate public funds," Lagman said.
Aquino on Monday signed the 2011 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or R.A. 10147 in Malacañang but vetoed certain provisions proposed by Congress, including the proposal of Sen. Joker Arroyo to impose a 55 percent cap on debt.
Lagman said the President even vetoed a provision in the GAA that would have allowed a congressional oversight committee to realign savings from the P21-billion CCT funds
"This completed the emasculation of the independent Congressional power to enact the annual appropriations," he said.
Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, who is also with the opposition, said the President "showed he has no respect for a co-equal branch of government and the wishes of the people as to where they want the budget to be placed."
"It shows that the people are not his bosses. The arrogance and stubbornness of the Palace is strongly manifested by vetoing the 13 provisions as the 2011 budget is almost a replica of what they submitted to Congress," she said.
Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chair of the committee on appropriations, has said Congress can still perform its oversight function over the disbursements of the P21-billion CCT funds despite the veto.
FROM MALAYA BIZ INSIGHTS
Philippine leader signs poverty-fighting budget AFP AFP - Monday, December 27
MANILA (AFP) - – Philippine President Benigno Aquino signed into law on Monday a massive 1.645 trillion-peso (37.3 billion-dollar) budget for 2011 which he said was designed to fight poverty and spur development.
The 2011 budget, which is 6.8 percent higher than last year, focuses on social programmes and includes a controversial provision for 21 billion pesos in cash handouts to selected poor families, officials said.
"This budget demonstrates our commitment to solving the problems of our people at the soonest time. This alleviates the burdens especially of the most disadvantaged," said Aquino at the signing ceremony.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said that 34.1 percent of the budget -- the single largest allocation -- would go to social services, showing the importance Aquino gives to helping the disadvantaged in this largely-impoverished country.
"The reform budget of 2011 puts our poor countrymen first. This budget puts into pesos the Aquino governments unabashed bias for the poor," he told reporters.
Abad also stressed that the budget contained special provisions to ensure it would be highly transparent, in line with Aquino's promise to fight corruption at all levels.
"These general and special provisions require us to disclose key information on budgetary appropriations and releases using new information technology," he said.
However Abad did not say how large the programmed deficit would be under this budget.
It is the first budget to be signed by Aquino after he won elections by a a landslide in May, campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.
He has repeatedly attacked the image of graft that saddled his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo and vowed not to follow her example.
The budget was passed by Congress almost unchanged from Aquino's original proposal and came in ahead of schedule in a sign of the increased cooperation between the new president and the legislature.
Aquino thanked the legislators for approving his policy of "conditional cash transfers," where money is given to certain poor families.
Critics have said the policy is wasteful and will only foster dependency in a country where 33 percent of the 94-million population live in poverty.
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