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News
September 13, 2009
Congress challenged to assert more power
on the 2010 budget
Social Watch Philippines (SWP)
challenged Senators and Congressmen to
strongly assert their power of the purse
as the design of the 2010 national
budget proposed by President Gloria
Arroyo allows the legislature to review
only P845 billion of the P1.54 trillion
allocations.
Former national treasurer and SWP lead
convenor Leonor Magtolis Briones said
that the new appropriations is only P914
billion of the P1.54 trillion budget.
Deducting the unprogrammed funds in new
appropriations, the allocation to be
scrutinized by congress is only P845
billion.
“Comparing 2009 and 2010 budget in
terms of total obligations, the budget
is P114 billion higher now. Yet, the new
appropriations that Congress has to act
on is P3.774 billion less than what they
had to act on in 2009.” said Briones.
Briones also warned that that the
increases in the 2010 budget are out of
reach of the legislature, while the
decreases in the budget will affect the
agencies which the legislature reviews.
“The increases are in budget items
which cannot be touched by legislature.
This includes the Automatic
Appropriations which increased by P123
billion and the SPF which increased by
P166 billion. Meanwhile, the budget for
departments, which the legislature
reviews, decreased by 51 billion,”
Briones said.
She added that the budget for
Departments is only 42.77 percent, while
the budget for Special Purpose Funds
(SPF), which is generally under the
control of the executive and will not be
reviewed by Congress, is 57.23 percent.
“Right now, the arena for the
legislature’s engagement with the
executive is even smaller with the
smaller budget that the legislature can
touch. It lays the question of who
really holds the power of the purse.
What is clear is that the power of
release is with the President,” Briones,
who is Oxfam’s Ambassador to the G8,
said.
SWP, through the Alternative Budget
Initiative (ABI) campaign, which is a
partnership among 60 civil society
groups and legislators formulating
alternative budget proposals for more
allocations for social development,
called on Congress and the Commission on
Audit (COA) to meticulously scrutinize
the SPF. ABI has been campaigning for
the realignment of SPF, which includes
budget items without clear, identifiable
and useful purpose, to allocations for
social development programs.
“While the extent of Congressional
intervention in the proposed budget is
heavily compromised by the fact that New
General Appropriations is only 59% of
the budget, Senators and Congressmen can
still make significant improvement to
ensure that an expenditure program which
is viable and responsive to current
economic conditions and social
development needs of the country is
adopted,” Briones said.
Briones reported that nongovernment
groups, partner legislators, the
Congressional Planning and Budget
Division (CPBD) and the Senate Economic
Planning Office (SEPO ), in a meeting
held recently, also agreed to help each
other in guarding the 2010 budget by
broadening civil society participation
in Congressional budget deliberation.
This will be done through exchange of
information, joint analyses of the
Executive’s proposed budget and
development of alternative budget
proposals.
Rene Raya of Action for Economic Reforms
said that the ABI is also calling on
Congress to strengthen oversight
function of the legislature to curtail
wastage in government spending. “This
can be done through the Joint
Legislative Oversight Committee on the
Budget, the creation of which was agreed
upon by the Bi-Cameral Conference
Committee on the 2009 Budget on January
2009,” Raya said.
“We also plead that Congress prioritize
legislative budget reform initiatives,
which already started early this year
with the public hearing conducted by the
Senate Committee on Finance on the
impoundment control bills,” Raya added.
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