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THE
chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations gave
notice it would accept amendments to the budget bill for
2008 and suggested to those interested to look closer at
the allocations for education, health and agriculture
for any perfecting amendments they may have in mind.
Lakas
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, committee chairman, made the
announcement as the House began plenary debate on
Wednesday on the proposed 2008 budget. “All bills are
not perfect; that is why we welcome perfecting
amendments.”
In his
sponsorship speech, Lagman said, “We hasten a word of
caution, however. More money does not always mean more
service or better performance. An augmentation may
instead buy more seminars or travels rather than
additional textbooks, better health care or more rice on
the table.”
He urged
his colleagues to immediately approve the budget to
prevent the reenactment of this year’s budget, as had
happened last year.
But he
is optimistic that by October 11, the House would be
able to complete discussions on the 2008 budget and
approve it.
Just as
lawmakers were debating on the floor, leaders of the
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) with some opposition
congressmen held a news conference nearby, challenging
House members to claim their full constitutional power
of the purse.
FDC
secretary general Milo Tanchuling said lawmakers should
be at the top of the budget process by exercising
responsible and prudent planning. “If there is one thing
Congress should be claiming, it is not the miserable
sense of duty of paying debts and ‘obligations’ which
are obviously anomalous and illegitimate in nature, but
rather their constitutional authority and power over the
development of a people-oriented budget.”
The debt
watchdog identified an initial P1.3 billion worth of
payments to illegitimate debts that must be stricken out
in the 2008 budget pending further investigation. Some
of these are the World Bank-funded textbook project, the
Austrian Medical Waste project, the Chinese funded North
Luzon Railways project, the World Bank Small Coconut
Farmers Development project and the already defunct
Telepono sa Barangay project.
“We
cannot say the budget was crafted responsibly by
Congress supposedly exercising the power of the purse if
the same Congress cannot purge the budget of numerous
line- item payments allotted for debts that are clearly
illegitimate,” he added.
“Congress must stop acting as the conveyor belt of the
executive department on the budget. It must develop its
own perspectives, identity and political initiative in
crafting a better and healthier fiscal plan for the
people.”
The
group also urged Congress to conduct an audit of the
country’s debt as a significant first step in addressing
the debt problem.
Leonor
Briones, an economics professor at the University of the
Philippines and coconvenor of Social Watch Philippines,
said government should forego useless expenditures but
instead realign them to more productive endeavors that
would uplift the lot of the millions of poor Filipinos.
Briones
said the “pork barrel” or the unprogrammed funds under
the P715-billion Special Purpose Funds of the President
should be given to health, education and environmental
protection.
Briones,
with Nacionalista Party-United Opposition Rep. Teofisto
Guingona III of Bukidnon and Liberal Party Rep. Lorenzo
Tañada III of Quezon, and the FDC said there is around
P61billion in unprogrammed funds that could be realigned
for social development.
“It’s
difficult to justify the purchase of two helicopters
when the fund could be used to help the poor people,”
said Briones, referring to the P1.68-billion helicopter
purchase government is planning.
Briones,
a former national treasurer, also took exception to the
P3-billion Kilos Asenso Support Fund under Mrs. Arroyo’s
budget that she said was not properly defined.
Lagman,
probably inadvertently, virtually supported the
contention of the FDC and other critics against the
continued automatic payment of debts when he mentioned
what he described as “crippling constraints of an
enormous debt service,” with interest payments reaching
P295.75 billion next year and principal amortization to
P328.34 billion, or a total debt service of P624.09
billion, which is a little over 50 percent of the
proposed National Expenditure Program.
“A
P1.227-trillion budget for 2008 appears to be huge at
face value. However, stripped of the virtually mandatory
personal services amounting to 384.829 billion and
automatic appropriations totaling P555.556 billion
consisting of Internal Revenue Allotment of P210.730
billion; interest payment of P295.751 billion and other
automatic appropriations of P49.075 billion, the
remaining discretionary items amounting to P286.615
billion or 23.36 percent of the total budget is the only
amount subject to the disposition of Congress,” said
Lagman. |
