A PARTY-LIST lawmaker over the weekend asked the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to explain the “questionable” funding of P832.2 million in its 2016 budget proposal.
Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers, during the recent House Committee on Appropriations budget deliberations, told Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz to account for an P832.2-million discrepancy in her department’s 2016 budget proposal.
Tinio said DOLE Region 4B (Mimaropa) would receive the highest allocation for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) among all regions, with a budget of P952.8 million.
Mimaropa is the region composed of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan. Mindoro is divided into the provinces of Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro. “This is highly improbable, considering that Mimaropa is one of the smallest, least populated regions in the country. Yet, Dole is asking for a budget that’s nearly double that of the National Capital Region,” the lawmaker said.
Tinio said, citing the allocations for each program of the Dole, Mimaropa would only be receiving a total of P120.5 million, “Hence, there’s an unexplained discrepancy of P832.295 million in the Dole budget proposal.”
“Dole needs to explain this significant discrepancy as soon as possible, preferably before the budget reaches the plenary,” Tinio said.
He said that the amount unaccounted for represents 16 percent of the total MOOE of the agency.
“If Dole cannot explain, then its budget proposal has been padded significantly and obviously cannot be approved,” Tinio said.
For her part, Baldoz asked the Committee on Appropriations for more time to submit the agency’s answer.
In a related development, Party-list Rep. Rep. Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna said that the insufficiently funded Department for Science and Technology (DOST) could get more funds if the P30 billion funds allotted for the Risk Management Program is scrapped and deleted from the proposed P3.002 trillion 2016 budget.
“In the first place, the Risk Management Program should be scrapped because it is only used by the government to pander big private contractors and concessionaires through the so-called sovereign guarantee pledges. These billions should be used instead to pave the way for our country to develop our science and technological sector; for more research and development programs,” Zarate said.
During the recent budget hearing at the House of Representatives, Zarate questioned the DOST on the state of basic research and innovations to improve agricultural and food production in the country.
Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo claimed that its research and development budget needs an additional P5 billion for 2016, but it was not approved by the Department of Budget and Management.
Moreover, Zarate said that there is a lack of basic research to improve food production, which should have been the focus of the department.
“For example, biotechnology was the among the core programs of the DOST in the past. Rightly so, because food security and agricultural productivity to help farmers must be among the government’s top concerns. However, we are lagging behind other Asian countries in food production and continue to import our prime staple, rice,” he added.
Zarate also said that the low-value added manufacturing that is on top of our exports in recent years undermines a wider development for our tech industry.
“We are manufacturing parts, such as electronic integrated circuits and semiconductor devices, and not end products, such as machines and computers. In other words, it is our cheap labor that is our capital in the industry and not our capability to produce hi-tech machinery. This is a deep-seated problem that the agency must address,” Zarate said.
According to the lawmaker, the country’s lack of a national industrialization plan is at the base of our backwardness in science and technology.
“A plan for national industrialization, or a long-term development plan, which will improve industries, such as agriculture and manufacturing, is nonexistent in our country. This will keep us underdeveloped, backward and our technology medieval,” Zarate added.
He also said that scientists and technologists are leaving the country because of the lack opportunities.
“Some of the best minds in our nation, our scientists and engineers, are leaving for opportunities abroad because there are no industries in the country that could provide spaces and incentives for their creativity and inventiveness,” Zarate added.
The slash on the science and technology budget is reflective of the disinterest of the government to prioritize the sector, he said.
“The budget given to DOST in 2015 is 0.68 percent of the national budget, smaller than we are allotting for conditional cash transfers. Why are we not funding the long-term solutions more that band-aid solutions to deep wrought poverty?” Zarate asked.
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), also known as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program has a budget of P62.3 billion in the 2015 General Appropriations Act, while DOST got P17.5 billion.