Palace advisers back extended session for budget

THE DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) will recommend to President Rodrigo R. Duterte that Congress hold a special session during its holiday break to pass the 2019 national budget, though the Senate expressed doubts that it can pass the legislation before the new year.

“There’s a possibility that the President may call for a special session sometime next week. We’ll recommend it to the President. His mind is on the extension of martial law right now. We can recommend it tomorrow or Friday,” Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a separate briefing that he will ask Mr. Duterte if he can request Congress for a special session.

“If (failure to pass a budget) affects the government’s expenses and services, then the President will be persuaded to grant the recommendation of the economic managers. If there’s a will to do it, it will pass,” Mr. Panelo added.

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, one of the vice chairpersons of the Senate committee on Finance meanwhile said that the chamber is highly unlikely to finish deliberations on the 2019 budget even with a special session.

“The initial consensus is that even if we extend until Christmas, we won’t be able to pass the budget before Dec. 31 so what’s the point,” he told reporters in a chance interview yesterday.

Failure to pass budget legislation before the end of the year triggers a re-enacted budget, under which the previous year’s funding program is deemed in force, and Mr. Lacson’s timetable indicates that the chamber is resigned to spending at least part of 2019 without new funding.

Mr. Lacson said that the Senate will ask the President not to call a special session.

“We will relay to Malacañang to no longer call a special session and President Duterte usually listens. Even if we add five days or wok until Christmas it cannot be passed,” Mr. Lacson said.

He added that the Senate will instead move to lift the ban on public works construction during election season for 2019.

Congress will suspend session on Dec. 15, and will resume on Jan. 14, having run out of time to pass the P3.757-trillion budget for 2019.

Economic managers have warned that if the 2018 budget is re-enacted for all of 2019 it may cut economic growth by 1.1-2.3 percentage points.

Legislators spent yesterday in special joint session to approve the extension of Martial Law in Mindanao.

The main sticking point, depending on which chamber is doing the talking, is whether the House transmitted the budget legislation to the Senate in time for the latter to evaluate it. The Senate claims it was weighed down by the need to identify alleged pork barrel “insertions” in place of funding for key line agencies.

The Senate targets approval on final reading on Jan. 16, followed by ratification of the legislation by the bicameral conference committee on Jan. 29, and aims to submit it to Mr. Duterte on Feb. 7 for his signature.

House deliberations on the proposed 2019 budget were stalled for about two weeks in August after legislators opposed the Executive’s shift to new budget rules that limit access to funds beyond a certain deadline. The chamber approved the spending plan on final reading on Nov. 20.

While the bill was being debated in the Senate, legislators from both chambers flagged alleged “insertions” in the budget, particularly for the Department of Works and highways (DPWH) to support projects in the districts of some of the government’s key allies.

Mr. Diokno said that the “insertions,” or “amendments,” to use Mr. Diokno’s terminology, are actually part of the regular budget process. He said the budget augmentations conducted before the Executive branch submitted the proposed 2019 budget to Congress, were approved by Mr. Duterte himself.

“DBM is only in charge of overseeing the budget process, as well as the allocation and release of funds. Implementing projects is not our job. There is no such thing as pork or insertions,” Mr. Diokno said.

He also noted that Congress actually has the power to further reallocate funds in the proposed budget.

Mr. Diokno said that although it initially granted a smaller budget than what the agency requested, he concurred with the augmentation as he wants to hit a 5% ratio of public infrastructure spending to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio. The ratio was 4.9% prior to the augmentation.

“We found out we’re still short on our commitment to disburse the equivalent of 5% of GDP for infrastructure. From 4.9% we want to make it 5%. That’s why I decided to adjust the budget of DPWH by setting aside P75.5 billion in additional funds, not P51 billion. That is not an insertion. That is part of the process,” Mr. Diokno said.

According to the DBM, of the initial P652 billion budget request of the DPWH, P480 billion was initially granted. To hit the ratio, Mr. Diokno said that the department bumped up the DPWH’s funding to P555 billion

House Majority Leader Rolando G. Andaya, Jr. called on the President to make the DBM explain its actions following the revelations of funds realigned into the DPWH budget.

Mr. Andaya said in a phone message that not even DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar was aware of the “insertions” into his department’s budget, and noted that some districts in Sorsogon received P10 billion “this year alone,” including districts where relatives of Mr. Diokno are in office or seeking new positions.

The House conducted Question Hour on Tuesday evening, subjecting Mr. Diokno to questioning over the realignment of funds in the budget.

Mr. Andaya said the questioning revealed that the DBM added a total of P75 billion to the DPWH budget, instead of P51 billion.

Mr. Andaya claimed that the “P75 billion DBM insertion done without RDC (Regional Development Council) approval,” adding that “we need to know basis of choosing these projects.”

The Majority Leader also advised President Rodrigo R. Duterte to “talk” to the Budget Secretary, who had “blind-sided” him in the budget process.

Mr. Lacson, who campaigns on a no-pork platform, said he was “enjoying” the fallout from question hour.

“Let’s put it this way, I’m enjoying this,” Mr. Lacson told reporters in a chance interview after the joint congressional session on the martial law extension Wednesday.

He said his role as a close reader of the budget has been validated by events. “I have always said that the people manipulating the budget have to be conscious that someone is watching. I can say that I am doing something useful,” Mr. Lacson said.

Mr. Lacson added that the issue for him is not “insertions” but whether the correct budgeting process was followed, particularly in terms of consultation with the implementing agencies.

“It is a misnomer to call them insertions because in the NEP (National Expenditure Program) it is not possible to insert because that is the President’s budget. But if you failed to consult the DPWH and it was added by the DBM then some abuses were committed and that is what Congressman Andaya spotted.”

Mr. Lacson added: ”We need to follow the correct budget process, from the local government unit level. Congressmen can also participate in the process. They can attend the drafting of local development plans and they need to shepherd the projects when they reach the House.”

Malacañang on Wednesday said it will conduct its own investigation into the allegations of Mr. Andaya.

“Since there is allegation of corruption, it follows that we have to investigate,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo said in a press briefing on Wednesday morning, Dec. 12.

“We have to investigate first… We don’t even know if it’s true or not, because there have been denials,” he added.

He also said that President Rodrigo R. Duterte still trusts Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno despite the allegations.

“Mr. Diokno is known to be the Mr. No. Meaning, he is a man of integrity. So when he says he’s not involved, I believe him. Unless you show me, as a lawyer, competent evidence to the contrary; the presumption is he is a man of competence and integrity,” he said.

On Mr. Andaya’s claims, he said: “The Executive wants to know whether or not there have been illegal insertions in the budget. On the part of the House, they will investigate whether or not these insertions made are really illegal. Because I’ve been told as explained by Congressman Maricar Zamora, that the pork barrel which is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, refers to lump sums that have been approved without any specific areas where this money will go.”

“But in this particular budget, what are being referred to are line budgets — meaning to say, that the line agencies were the ones who pinpointed the projects. And so when it is approved, we know exactly where it will go — that is the explanation.”

Mr. Panelo noted that the President will not allow any favored districts. “He wants that all districts will have equal opportunities to grow, to progress,” he said. —