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AS THE
House of Representatives started deliberations on the
P1.415-trillion 2009 budget, an antidebt watchdog
appealed to legislators to start implementing budget
reforms by dismantling all the impediments to democracy
in the budget process, if they really want to
effectively respond to the needs of the people.
In its
congratulatory letter to Liberal Party Rep. Junie Cua of
Quirino, for his appointment as chairman of the House
Committee on Appropriations, the Freedom from Debt
Coalition (FDC) ask him to stand firm on the democratic
gains achieved in last year’s budget development.
These
achievements, the FDC said, could only be realized if
Congress will recognize a clear and concrete legislative
concurrence concerning the need to repeal archaic
institutional mechanisms on debt servicing, and to
curtail the Executive department’s enormous fiscal
powers.
“We hope
that under your leadership, Congress will pass
appropriation bills that truly reflect the needs and
interest of the people,” said Milo Tanchuling, FDC
secretary-general, in his letter to Cua.
The
group also reminded Cua on the Congress’s apparent
diminishing power of the purse, which it said was
clearly seen in the 2008 budget.
It cited
a special provision in the 2008 budget which calls for
the suspension of interest payments of specific loan
agreements challenged as fraudulent, anomalous and/or
wasteful pending investigation, renegotiation and/or
condonation.
This was
lauded by different sectors as a significant advance in
the campaign against illegitimate debts, an advance made
within the realm of the national budget.
But
unfortunately, President Arroyo vetoed the special
provision.
In her
veto message, Mrs. Arroyo said much as she “bemoaned”
the act, it was necessary to protect the country’s
protection of credit rating and the nonviolation of
contractual laws.
“This is
despite the fact that almost all lawmakers approved this
specific measure in the budget,” said Tanchuling.
“Thus,
we ask Congress to urge President Arroyo to once and for
all repeal the automatic debt-servicing provision which
impends the Executive to concur with the Legislature
concerning important reforms in the budget process,” he
added.
Tanchuling told Cua that the FDC believes that Congress
should regulate the fiscal powers of the Executive
department so as to put premium on the meaningful
reforms achieved by Congress in tandem with social
movements on debt reduction, as well as the alternative
reallocation of state resources in the budget.
The
group is asking legislators to amend the Revised
Administrative Code of 1987, as instituted by Executive
Order 292, by removing the automatic appropriations for
debt service (Section 31-B), the presidential powers of
impoundment (Section 38) and the realignment of savings
(Section 39).
The FDC
also urge them to put limits and parameters on the
unilateral contracting of loans by amending the Foreign
Borrowings Act of 1966 and the Official Development
Assistance Act of 1996.
“Likewise, we welcome Congress’s recent call for public
participation in the budget process. Hence, we call for
the institutionalization of grassroots people’s
participation and involvement in all stages [proposal,
legislation, authorization, evaluation] and levels
[agency-level, region-level, etc.] of budget development
by decentralizing budget decision-making using LGU-level
mechanisms,” Tanchuling said.
He said
that while the group believed that many of its proposed
measures concerning a more democratic and transparent
budget cannot be possibly accommodated in the 2009
budget deliberation, “we believe the current budget
process is a very good opportunity to articulate these
perspectives, as well as an excellent preparatory
process to build necessary consensus among our
legislators.” |
