Rody’s P6-B budget approved in 2 minutes

The P6-billion budget President Duterte is seeking for his office for 2018 was approved yesterday by his congressmen-allies without much discussion and in just two minutes.

Not one among the lawmakers who attended the hearing raised any question.

The short period that Palace officials led by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea stayed inside the hearing room was not even a fraction of the time they spent on the road going from Malacañang to the Batasan complex where the House of Representatives holds office.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said the speedy approval of the President’s budget was a manifestation of the courtesy the House was extending to Duterte.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate told reporters that Nograles requested them to not ask questions.

“But we were informed that we could propound questions during the plenary debates on the budget,” said Zarate, who would have wanted to know where Duterte was using his P2.5-billion intelligence budget for this year.

“Is he using it in his bloody anti-drug war?” he asked, noting reports that policemen were rewarded P10,000 to P15,000 for every suspected drug peddler killed.

“Since there are at least 10,000 drug suspects so far killed, at P10,000 per kill, the total amount of rewards would come up to between P100 million and P150 million. Those are very big sums. Where are they getting the money?” Zarate said.

Medialdea submitted to the Nograles committee a threepage briefer that contained very basic information about the proposed Palace budget. The document shows that funding for the Office of the President would go down from P20.2 billion this year to P6.031 billion next year. Allocation for salaries will go up by P286.7 million, from P707.4 million to P994.2 million. There was no explanation on where the huge increase will go.

Appropriation for maintenance and other operating expenses will fall from P19.3 billion to P4.7 billion, while capital outlay will increase by P189.5 million, from P180.7 million to P370.2 million.

As in the increase in salaries, the adjustment in capital out- lay was not explained. Budget documents earlier submitted to the appropriations committee show that Duterte is proposing to retain his P2.5-billion intelligence fund next year.