P500 B ILLEGALLY WITHHELD
MANILA, JANUARY
12,
2012 (STANDARD) by Christine Herrera - A
DISGRUNTLED partymate of President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday asked the
Supreme Court to stop the use of the P1.816-trillion national budget for 2012,
claiming the government had illegally withheld P500 billion in internal revenue
allotment for local government units.
Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas (photo at right), who was stripped of the
chairmanship of the House committee on ways and means, said the amount due local
governments from 1992 to 2012 had reached P500 billion.
The Palace called his petition a crazy idea.
Budget Secretary Florencio said the appeal for a temporary restraining order
to the high court would be useless because 90 percent of the national budget had
already been released to the government departments and agencies. Restraining
the use of the budget would paralyze the bureaucracy.
Much of the budget would go to the salaries of state workers and pay for
water, power and telephone bills, Abad said.
"What is there to TRO?" Abad told the Manila Standard.
"So government employees cannot receive their pay? So offices cannot pay for
the water and electric bills? And we have already released more than 90 percent
of Departments budgets."
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said stopping the government from making
use of the national budget could not be done.
"It [General Appropriations Act] is already a law. I would say it cannot be
done," Belmonte told the Manila Standard.
Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chairman of the House committee on
appropriations, questioned the timing of Mandanas' petition at the time the
House was seeking the conviction of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona
before the Senate impeachment tribunal.
"With the Supreme Court now, I would not even comment on his timing," said
Abaya, also the team manager of the 11-member House panel of prosecutors that
will present evidence against Corona on Monday, when Congress resumes session
and the Senate convenes itself into an impeachment court.
President Aquino, Abad, Belmonte and Abaya were Mandanas's colleagues in the
ruling Liberal Party.
Mandanas lost the chairmanship of the House committee after he refused to
sign the 57-page impeachment complaint against Corona.
Belmonte denied that replacing Mandanas was a result of the latter's refusal
to sign, but that it was more of his going against the Aquino administration's
thrust for good governance and transparency.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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