SOLONS FILE 2012 BUDGET AMENDMENTS
[PHOTOS: THE HOUSE OF CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III]
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 24, 2011 (TRIBUNE) Members of Congress yesterday made a beeline to submit amendments to House Bill No. 5023, known as the General Appropriations Bill for 2012.
Plenary session resumes at the House of Representatives on Monday, although it is not certain whether these amendments will be accepted by the majority or ignored by the House allies of President Aquino who toe the Palace line.
The budget bill was already passed on second reading and the passage of the bill on third reading is usually merely a formality and technicality.
But a number of lawmakers want the multibillion-peso fund for hiring government personnel in the proposed 2012 national budget to be returned to the control of government agencies concerned.
Malacañang earlier had included the provision to divert P1.98 billion in the national budget to an item termed as the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF), a move seen as unconstitutional as well as a usurpation of the power of the judiciary in handling its own funds, as the Constitution has vested the Judicial branch of government, a co-equal branch of the Legislature and the Executive branches, with fiscal autonomy. The same power is vested on all constitutional offices that enjoy fiscal autonomy.
The Supreme Court (SC) earlier had sounded the alarm over the
unconstitutional diversion by Malacanang of close to P 2 billion in funds originally intended for the judicial department.
Court Administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez underscored that Section 3, Article VIII of the Constitution requires fiscal autonomy for the judiciary.
"There's always the Constitution. We have to go back to fundamental law and try to find out what the Constitution says. The Constitution is as clear as day when it comes to fiscal autonomy and non-reduction of the budget of the Judiciary," Marquez said and added that the Constitution also mandates that the judiciary's budget shall not be lower than the previous budget.
The Judiciary's current budget for this year is P14.3 billion.
A constitutional crisis is seen to be looming with the Palace insisting on impounding some P101 billion allocated to the Judiciary and other constitutional offices for hiring of their personnel.
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco joined the other lawmakers in protesting the inclusion of appropriations intended for the Judiciary including the SC, Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan and all other courts; Commission on Audit (CoA), Commission on Elections (Comelec); Civil Service Commission (CSC); and the Office of the Ombudsman in the MPBF under the 2012 GAA for being in violation of the 1987 Constitution.
House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman also proposed as a "compromise" the inclusion of a special provision that will ensure transparency and proper utilization of the fund.
Lagman and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the budget for the unfilled positions in the Judiciary, Congress, and Constitutional Commissions should revert to the agencies as part of personnel services instead of being included in the lump sum fund in the proposed national budget for 2012 under the MBPF.
Lagman, in his letter to Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chairman of a special committee in the House doing the amendments to the proposed 2012 national budget, said government agencies, especially those that have fiscal autonomy should be allowed to take control of their own fund for hiring personnel.
The Palace came out with the unprecedented MPBF, claiming that impounding of funds needs to be done to curb the practice of some agencies that use the fund for personnel for other expenses.
Lagman said the judiciary and the legislative branches, which are both fiscally autonomous, might question the MPBF before the Supreme Court if their funds are not released.
Rodriguez, for his part, said the funds that should be brought back to the agencies include the P1.9 billion for the Judiciary; P1.8 billion for the Commission on Audit (CoA); P1.64 million for the Comelec; P311 million for the Office of the Ombudsman; and P53 million for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
He also said that the P403-million budget of SUCs should be returned to their respective budget instead of being included in the MPBF.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said his proposal is focused on the budgets of the Department of Education (DepEd), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), Department of National Defense (DND), Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), and General Provisions.
For the DepEd budget, Tinio proposed an additional P650 million for the augmentation of cash allowance or the "chalk allowance" to teachers; deletion of the special provision allowing National Elementary and Secondary Schools to augment their budgets through collection of fees; creation of some 38,593 additional permanent teacher items to address the teacher shortage; deletion of provision for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) School Building Projects; regularization of some 68,593 kindergarten and locally funded teachers; and the construction of some 6,250 additional classrooms.
He said the additional funding requirements for the proposed amendments in the DepEd budget shall be taken from the funds of Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan program, the Conditional Cash Transfers-Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program, and the PPP scheme.
For SUCs, the ACT Teachers party-list solon recommended a provision prioritizing the regularization of 14,425 precariously employed part-time faculty members and the creation of some 8,000 new teaching items to effectively address the lack of qualified regular faculty.
For DND, Tinio suggested tying the release of funds of military units to their human rights record.
"We believe that the national budget should also be used as a tool to promote respect for human rights and address the problem of impunity, particularly within the ranks of the military," he said.
Tinio said the proposed amendment to the DND budget aims to ensure that all units of the military down to the smallest level "will be effective partners in enforcing and respecting human rights."
He also proposed to remove the funding of the Pamana program from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process budget, arguing that OPAPP is not an implementing agency "but only a policy-making and coordinative body."
Tinio pointed out that it is highly anomalous for an essentially armless agency to be given charge of a P329.343 million project when the Staffing Summary of OPAPP does not record a single permanent item.
"During the plenary deliberations for the budget of OPAPP, it was revealed that this office does not have the absorptive capacity to implement the Pamana program," he said.
For the General Provisions, the ACT Teachers party-list solon proposed adding a debt cap provision and setting aside a budget for programs and services for persons with disabilities.
"In our proposed amendment, the total indebtedness of the National Government and any of its agencies, offices, GOCCs (government owned and controlled corporations) must not exceed 55 percent of the latest GDP (gross domestic product)," he said.
"Government debt has surpassed ideal and manageable levels, even reaching 378.7 percent of the GDP in 2004. The Philippines had also been paying interests double than what other countries pay — 8.7 percent as opposed to only 4-5 percent for other countries — without Congress knowing the details of the payments," he noted.
Last year, Tinio said the consolidated debt obligation of the national government was 57 percent of the GDP which is P2.537 trillion for internal debt and P1.921 trillion for external debt.
He said that it is the ordinary citizen that carries the burden of paying the ballooning amount of government debt.
"All departments, bureaus, offices, agencies, commissions, and government owned and controlled corporations including state colleges and universities shall set aside at least one percent of their total FY 2012 budget appropriations for programs, services, and activities for senior citizens. They shall also set aside at least one percent for programs, services, and activities for persons with disabilities," he said. With PNA
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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