House readies ₧50-B supplemental budget for police, military pensioners
THE chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday said he is set to file a P50-billion supplemental budget for the pension and gratuity fund of retired military and police personnel previously slashed in the national budget.
ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap made assurance after Anakalusugan Partylist Rep. Mike Defensor accused Speaker Lord Allan Velasco for the alleged P20-billion decrease in military’s pension and gratuity fund in the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) during the chamber’s privilege hour.
Yap said he is preparing a supplemental budget of P50 billion to absorb the fund deficiency brought about by the P70-billion budget cut made by the previous House leadership.
Yap also clarified that the 2021 GAA was diligently scrutinized by the Bicameral conference committee and the Executive department, including the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
“It was the most responsive budget we could craft and pass in the wake of the global pandemic, especially considering the fact that Speaker Lord Allan Velasco had to work double-time to pass the GAA and prevent a reenacted budget,” Yap said.
Yap explained that the P20 billion was consensual removal of a buffer fund, which the DBM, House and the Senate all agreed.
He added that the present quandary involving the pension of uniformed retirees was due to the P70-billion cut in their budget for the year 2020 during the previous House leadership.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Isidro Ungab accused the previous House leadership of manipulating the 2020 national budget which resulted in budget cuts totaling P209 billion, including the more than P70 billion that were slashed from the pension and gratuity fund of retired military and police personnel.
Ungab was the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations when Congress approved in 2019 the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 during the term of thenspeaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
“I think this is the proper time to reveal what truly happened, everything that has happened. ’Yun pong nag-finalize ng Bicameral conference committee report was not anymore the chairman [of the Committee on Appropriations],” Ungab revealed.
Ungab said that at that time, he talked to his Senate counterpart, Sen. Sonny Angara, to pass the 2020 budget as the economy was severely affected then.
He was then ousted as head of the appropriations panel as he continuously voiced his disgust over the cuts. Ungab said that he will tell all in a privilege speech at the proper time.
Meanwhile, Defensor, in a news statement, said the claim of Yap that P20 billion in military and police retirees’ pension money was diverted to Covid-19 vaccine procurement is not true.
“To set the record straight, the vaccine procurement fund approved by Congress, as recommended by the Bicameral conference committee and carried in the 2021 budget, was P2.5 billion, which is good for just a few thousand doses and which was the amount recommended by the executive branch at the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
For his part, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the allegation of Ungab that former Speaker Cayetano and him had “allegedly removed” P70 billion in gratuity and pension funds in the 2020 national budget is “rather absurd on several points.”
“First, there was no such push by the then-speaker or by myself at the Bicam committee talks for the 2020 GAA bill. If I recall correctly, if there was such a move, it was probably initiated by the Senate, not by the House contingent, let alone by the Speaker or by myself,” he said.
“Second, I was just the deputy speaker for finance at that time and it was Congressman Ungab, as the then-chairman of the House appropriations committee, who was the House’s honcho, so to speak, at the negotiations as head of the House contingent. Hence, how could I or the Speaker have inserted or removed anything in the budget talks when neither of us was physically present in the Bicam process and he was the team leader?” he added.
Villafuerte said such “absurdities” simply indicate that Ungab “is in a state of extreme distress” over his failure to prevent the alleged P70-billion budget cut from happening.