INCOMING Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday said the Duterte administration will submit to Congress a bigger national budget for 2017 amounting to P3.35 trillion that will also carry an P80-million Priority Development Assistance Fund allocation for each House member.
The 2017 P3.35-trillion national budget would be increased by P348 billion from this year’s P3.002 trillion.
Alvarez confirmed the PDAF increase from P70 million to P80 million but insisted it was not pork barrel as it would not come in lump sum appropriations.
“The Department of Budget and Management will submit to the House a proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017,” the congressman from Davao del Norte said.
Alvarez said the misimpression may have arisen from the P80-million cap that had been proposed for each legislative district per year, divided between infrastructure projects and non-infrastructure expenditures, like medicine and scholarships.
“Putting a cap on project costs is realistic because public funds are limited and thus must be used judiciously. We want bang for the buck to get the most benefit for our people,” Alvarez stressed.
“I never said that members of the House of Representatives ‘will be entitled to their usual district allocations.’ The Supreme Court has already ruled against such lump sum allocations,” he said.
“What I said was that congressmen will be allowed to propose projects needed in their districts so they can be included in the line budgeting of the General Appropriations Act,” added Alvarez.
Alvarez said the function of identifying priority projects is inherent in members of the House of Representatives because “the people go directly to us to tell us what projects are badly needed by their communities.”
“There will be no pork barrel or lump sum allocations for members of Congress, period,” he stressed.
Youth group Anakbayan expressed dismay over news that congressmen were trying to continue the corrupt “pork barrel” system despite mass protests, which led to a Supreme Court ruling declaring it unconstitutional.
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco earlier said they were asked to submit P80-million worth of projects that would be included in the national budget in line-item budgeting that contains details of the projects and the amounts for each project.
Tiangco said it could not be considered pork barrel as it does not come in lump sum but carries with it details such as type of project, where it will be placed and how much it will cost.
Tiangco said some P50 million was allocated for “hard projects” such as infrastructure while P30 million was allotted for such “soft projects” as scholarships to the poor but deserving students and medical assistance for indigent patients.
The P10 million increase was added to the hard projects from P40 million to P50 million.
“This is clearly in defiance of the SC ruling and is an insult to the Filipino people’s clamor against corruption as well as the Duterte administration’s promise of change. Are they trying to embarrass the president and sabotage his anti-corruption drive?” said Anakbayan national chairman Vencer Crisostomo.
“The porky Aquino administration, its Budget Secretary (Florencio) Butch Abad and its Congress allies have previously circumvented the ruling banning congressional pork by allowing the corrupt practice of congressmen submitting insertions and proposals to the various agencies before the proposed budget goes to Congress,” Crisostomo said.
“Legislators dipping their hands into the budget of agencies and having lump-sum funds under their control are blatantly illegal, immoral and corrupt. We call on congressmen to stop their porky practices and stop trying to revive the Aquino-style corruption,” Crisostomo said.
The youth group added that the new administration should be purged of the Aquino and Abad lump-sum funds which take away funds from public services to be used to bribe legislators and reward its allies.
“We are confident that the new Duterte administration will not tolerate such attempts to re-institutionalize corruption. The youth and people will not allow these porky politicians to spoil the campaign for hope and change,” he said.
Alvarez said there is no truth to the claim that every congressman will be given his “due.”
“We in government cannot take or even consider a single centavo of taxpayers’ money as our due. Corruption has no place under this administration,” Alvarez said.
“This is the reason why the framers of our Constitution made sure that budget-setting starts at the House,” he said. “We congressmen are at ground zero, so to speak.”
Alvarez explained lawmakers under his leadership as incoming House Speaker will only be allowed to propose projects needed in their districts.
Alvarez also reiterated that the budget for the projects approved for inclusion in the General Appropriations Act would be given to the agencies of the government that will implement them.
“The Duterte administration has a strong anti-corruption program. Woe to the lawmaker who will propose a project with the end-in-view of making money out of it in the manner it was done in the past through under-the-table commissions from implementors,” said Alvarez.
He said Congress will abide by the Supreme Court ruling prohibiting lawmakers from intervening or participating in any of the post-budgeting stages of a project’s execution.