'Arroyo allies in House have P20-B pork'

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Allies of President Macapagal-Arroyo in the House of Representatives have built up a large pork barrel by diverting close to P20 billion in proposed spending this year from debt service and agrarian reform to increase allocations for public works, local governments and Congress, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday.

“Some congressmen are obviously more concerned with winning in 2010 than ensuring the economy’s survival this year,” Lacson told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II confirmed the dubious diversions.

“This is evidently a blatant attempt to raise funds for the Cha-cha (Charter change) and the elections. It is clear that the economy is the least of the President’s priority. She is bent on staying in power forever,” Roxas said.

Pork barrel finances the pet projects of legislators. Though the money is not directly released to senators and members of the House, pork barrel is believed to be a major source of kickbacks for lawmakers. The kickbacks come from contractors who bag the projects.

Lacson, a member of the bicameral conference committee, said the House version of the P1.415-trillion proposed budget for 2009 slashed P14.776 billion from debt service, P3.5 billion from miscellaneous personnel fund, and P1.3 billion from the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Public works

The cutbacks, totaling P19.576 billion, were allocated for the regional infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (P8.178 billion), additional spending money for local government units (P3.36 billion) and additional pork barrel for Congress (P1.46 billion).

A cutback of P6.578 billion has yet to be accounted for as this was most likely “inserted” in the 2009 budget.
The bicameral committee, tasked with reconciling the House and Senate versions of the proposed budget, is expected to resume its discussions with the resumption of sessions next week.

Bigger budget deficit

By cutting the proposed allocation for debt service, the House will be forcing government to borrow more, resulting in a bigger budget deficit, the member of the bicameral committee said.

The Arroyo administration has been urged to refocus the 2009 budget to make it more responsive to the country’s economic slowdown amid lower remittances from Filipino overseas workers and export earnings due to the deepening global recession.

Lacson said the members of the House wanted to redirect the funds to expense items controlled or influenced by them and local government officials to boost their political stock ahead of the 2010 elections.

Sweetener for Cha-cha

The senator said the fund diversion could be used as “sweeteners” to induce more lawmakers into supporting Charter change moves in the House.

Ms Arroyo’s allies in the House are pushing for a constituent assembly as a mode of amending the Constitution, which critics claim would extend the term of the President and other elected officials.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said that allocating more money for regional projects of the public works department and the pork barrel of local government executives and House members showed that the proposed 2009 General Appropriations Act was an “election budget.”

“These funds should have been realigned to education, health, housing and social services,” Casiño said in a text message.

Earlier, senators were accused of making P20 billion in total insertions in the proposed 2009 budget that would benefit their pet projects.

Supplemental budget

House Speaker Prospero Nograles has pushed for the swift approval of the proposed P11.3-billion supplemental budget to ensure the automation of elections next year.

The budget covers the P1.3-billion budget for the preparations of the Commission on Elections and other government agencies, and P9.559 billion for the acquisition and deployment of poll counting machines.