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Reclaiming the People's Purse
Foreword by Senator Teofisto Guingona III
 Trillions
of pesos in government coffers used to maintain
the administration and to finance development
come from the citizens. It is therefore but
right for the people to have the biggest say in
decisions on national priorities that must be
addressed by government. These national
priorities are best reflected in the General
Appropriations Act, the document that guides the
allocation of the national budget.
In a democracy, the legislature is the elected
representative of the people, entrusted to wield
the power of the purse. Sadly, being people’s
representatives cannot be said of many Senators
and Congressmen, who became so, not with the
will to safeguard people’s interest, but that of
their own or that of their political
benefactors. Add to this the equally sad fact
that the law in our country allows one person,
the single handed power to formulate, approve or
disapprove, and release the budget.
Even legislators oftentimes sigh and lose hope.
Where is the legislature’s so called “Power of
the Purse” when the Executive can veto the
National Expenditure Program that Congress has
approved? Where is the “Power of the Purse” when
Congressional initiatives on the General
Appropriations Act are being impounded as forced
savings and can be used by the executive for
whatever purpose it may deem necessary?
But amidst the darkness, the Alternative Budget
Initiative (ABI) and Social Watch Philippines
provides faith and hope. With the guidance of
SWP lead convenor and former national treasurer
Leonor Magtolis Briones, civil society has now
begun to actively and directly engage in the
national budget process through alternative
budget proposals.
ABI’s budget proposals are results of hard work
indeed. They are studied and formulated by the
sectoral leaders and citizens groups who
painstakingly generate data from the grassroots
by working with and consulting the communities.
Further, ABI studies the budget of the
implementing agencies, consults the government
personnel and thereafter, lobbies Congress for
increases in the budget of pro-poor programs of
the Departments of Health, Education,
Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources,
and other government agencies.
In addition, ABI was instrumental in alerting
Congressmen and Senators about the fact that
they are reviewing less than half of the
national budget; that there are invisible
budgets or sources of public funds that are not
within their reach; and that billions of pesos
worth of funds which were allocated through
Congressional initiatives were not released or
were impounded for so many years.
By supporting civil society’s alternative budget
proposals on critical socioeconomic programs,
and by working in partnership with ABI/SWP,
Congressmen and Senators can hope to be true to
the claim of being genuine representatives of
the people. Hopefully, the deterioration of
Philippine democracy can be reversed.
With ABI and SWP, both Houses of Congress are
now clamouring that the Legislature’s Power of
the Purse be restored through bills on budget
reforms and people’s participation in the
national and local budget processes..
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Study reveals scant Filipino power over public
funds
 Real
people power over public funds in the
Philippines is still very limited. This was the
main message of Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones
during her last official lecture as professor of
the UP National College of Public Administration
and Governance.
“The new administration still needs to prove
that it is a democratic government by
institutionalizing citizens’ participation in
all phases of the public finance cycle,” said
Briones during her public lecture titled “Pera
ng Taumbayan, Para Sa Taumbayan”. .
“People should be directly involved in the
determining fiscal policy, revenue,
expenditures, borrowings and accountability; and
not simply play the role of providing
information to the public,” explained Briones
who has been nominated by her College for the
title of Professor Emeritus.
Briones’ stated that citizens’ participation is
least palpable and least visible in the
formulation of fiscal policy. “The Medium Term
Development Plan (MTPDP) which is the basis for
fiscal policy, mandates citizens’ participation
largely in social development and not
necessarily in public finance,” Briones said.
Briones’ lecture is based on a study grant from
the United Nations Development Program on
“Enhancing Citizens’ Participation in Public
Finance”.
Meanwhile, the study showed the people’s groups’
are not really able to participate in crafting
policies on revenue; but are actually just
informing the public on issues such as sin
taxes. The situation is the same in the
accountability stage of public finance, where
people’s engagement is not sustained as it
depends on the issue and not on systemic
government reforms.
On the other hand, the study revealed that there
is sustained people’s participation in
determining policies on borrowings, but the
impact is limited. “It seems that civil society
positions on debt are being ignored by the
government because the policy on borrowings has
not changed much even after many years of
sustained campaigns by nongovernment
organizations,” said Briones, who has been
teaching public finance for already 50 years and
has served as the Secretary to the Commission on
Audit and Treasurer of the Philippines.
Briones said that the stage of public finance
where Filipinos has shown great influence is on
determining expenditures. “Social Watch
Philippines led sustained people’s engagement in
the entire budget cycle through the Alternative
Budget Initiative (ABI). The impact on policies
on expenditures is clearly seen in the increased
budget for social development that SWP/API has
been able to push for in the General
Appropriations Act of the last four years,”
Briones said.
The study showed that since 2006, civil society
groups have been participating in determining
expenditures through reforms in the legislature.
It is only in the budget for 2012 that civil
society groups will be able to actually
participate in the preparation of the budget by
the executive branch.
“It is a long way to go. There is very limited
peoples’ power on Philippine public finance,”
Briones said. “It is important to know if the
government really listens to the people. The
challenge is for the new administration to
finally institutionalize people’s participation
in all phases of public finance, not just in
terms of providing information to the public,
but in terms of actual participation in
determining the policies,” she said. Back to top
Senator TG puts
forward Senate
Bill on People's
Participation in
Budget
Deliberations
Senator Teofisto Guingona III has sponsored a
bill, known as "The People's Participation in
Budget Deliberations Act". Guingona said that
the bill will aid in achieving genuine democracy
by enshrining the right of the people to direct
participation in the budget process, thereby
preserving people's power in influencing
priorities underlying the budget for social
development.
He added that sustainable and equitable
development will be possible only if there is
recognition of citizens' involvement in the
budget process as an indispensable strategy
towards improving delivery of social services
and increasing investment for the most
vulnerable sectors.
“It is high time the Philippine Congress
recognize the importance of citizens groups'
direct engagement in the budget process. We
should now institutionalize the practice of
legislature-civil society collaboration for a
people-oriented budget and more participation,
transparency and accountability in the budget
process so that Congress may fully exercise its
power of the purse for the people,” Guingona
said.
The bill provides for certain privileges for
non-governmental and people’s organizations that
are accredited by the Senate, House of
Representatives or Local Legislative Body to
participate in budget deliberations.
This includes the privilege to (a) Participate
thru its duly authorized representatives in any
regular and consultative public meetings,
hearings, conferences, dialogues, debates or
deliberations sponsored by both Houses of
Congress including District and other local body
in relation to the government's annual budget;
(b) Submit an alternative or proposed budget or
position paper with regard to the sector or
organization it represents; (c) access copies of
the bills or budget proposals filed in both
Houses and local government concerned; and (d)
Present written proposals on projects and
activities of the government entities which
budget is under deliberations; and (e) access
data coming from both Houses and concerned LGU.
A similar bill was already filed in the House of
Representatives by the Committee on People’s
Participation led by Congressmen Benjamin Asilo
and Lorenzo Tanada III.
Social Watch Philippines and the Alternative
Budget Initiative consortium has actively
participated and provided inputs in drafting the
bills on people’s participation in the budget
process in both Houses.
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SPECIAL
REPORT:
Social Watch
Asia conducts
capacity-building
workshop in
Manila
 Fifty-eight
social development activists and development
workers attended the Social Watch Pan-Asia
Capacity Building Workshop last November 25-27,
2010 in Manila, Philippines. Present were Social
Watch networks and coalitions from Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan
and the Philippines.
Prof. Leonor Briones, Social Watch Philippines
lead convenor, said that there is a need to
establish alternative pathways for development
in the Asian region where there are many leaders
who talk about development and the MDGs.
“Social Watch coalitions and networks in Asia
should exchange views to effectively engage
their respective governments,” Briones said. “It
is not enough to criticize ongoing state-led
government programs; Social Watch coalitions
must also present alternatives,” she added.
Roberto Bissio, chair of Social Watch
International, said that though many
international summits and UN conferences have
passed, and commitments made, many peoples and
countries are still fighting poverty,
experiencing underdevelopment and environmental
degradation.
“As recession is hitting the major economies in
the North/First World, funding for Third
World/South countries is diminishing. This
affects the goal of reducing poverty of the
“bottom billion” or the poorest of the world’s
poor, not only in Asia but also in Africa and
Latin America,” he said.
Social Watch member-countries must strengthen
its partners at the local levels, as they are
the ones directly engaged in development work.
Another task of Social Watch is to make
governments accountable to their mandate of
delivering effective and efficient services to
the poor and marginalized,” said Bissio. Back to top
Contact Us
Social Watch
Philippines
Room 140 Alumni
Center
University of the Philippines
Tels:
+6302-4366054
Website:
www.socialwatchphilippines.org
Email address:
info@socialwatchphilippines.org
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