No excuse for illegal release of funds

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

DBM Secretary Florencio Abad and President Benigno Aquino

President Aquino is seizing the opportunity to justify the use of government savings under the controversial Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) by emphasizing the need to send immediate financial assistance to the people and provinces of Bohol and Cebu, which were devastated by a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake last week.

Aquino said the P7.5-billion calamity fund for this year has been reduced to P176 million while his P310-billion Special Purpose Fund (SPF) or contingency fund has only P824 million left. He said he plans to realign some P20 billion in savings to augment the dwindling calamity and contingency fund.

Aquino has repeatedly cited the need to release funds in cases of calamity or contingency without having to seek the approval of Congress as a justification for his special discretionary (pork barrel) funds in the form of the DAP, Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the SPF. These funds are, by their very nature, discretionary on the part of the President and thus, he claims, do not need authorization from Congress.

Now, Aquino wants to release more funds from government savings because, according to him, the people and provinces of Central Visayas need the funds now and cannot wait for Congress to deliberate and approve a supplemental budget for the purpose.

Just this week, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, a constitutional law expert, said that so-called “off-budget funds” are unconstitutional, because such funds violate the constitutional provision which states: “No money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.”

Since these savings were from funds originally appropriated by Congress for purposes other than what Aquino wants to spend them on, his action would be deemed illegal and unconstitutional, which could open doors for his possible impeachment.

While we have no qualms about the need to help the people of Bohol and Cebu immediately, I submit that the P176 million left from the calamity fund and the P824 million from the contingency fund should be more than enough to provide immediate assistance to the earthquake victims and to the two provincial governments.

Congress can then enact a supplementary budget appropriating funds for non-immediate projects needed for the full rehabilitation of the Central Visayas provinces.

The Constitution clearly bars any release of funds from the National Treasury other than those appropriated by Congress, and it is paramount that the Executive Branch follow this provision to the letter.

The President already has billions of discretionary funds under his control. In fact, his discretionary funds are more than half of the annual national budget. He is spending these funds, which come from the Malampaya Fund, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), without even consulting Congress, which is supposed to have the sole power of the purse. How come he is now asking for more funds from the savings of other departments to release at his discretion?

Has the administration accounted for the billions spent from this year’s P7.5-billion calamity fund and P310-billion special contingency fund?

Knowing that the country is always faced with calamity and disasters, why did he not ask Congress earlier to pass a supplemental budget setting aside funds from government savings to augment the dwindling calamity and contingency funds instead of giving them away to senators and congressmen as obvious bribes to influence them into impeaching and convicting Chief Justice Renato Corona and into passing the Reproductive Health Bill?

Besides, according to Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares, the administration can still tap P712.21 billion in Congress-appropriated funds that are related to calamities and emergencies. These funds, he said, were included in the General Appropriations Act of 2012 and 2013 and can be legally used for Bohol and Cebu relief and rehabilitation.

Colmenares said these funds are separate from the regular appropriations of several government corporations and can be used if the president ordered so or when the corporation itself initiated the disbursement.

“If the president wants to, it should go to calamity victims,” Colmenares said. He said the government has a lot funds that can be used for rehabilitation and should not use the recent disaster in Visayas to defend the legally-questioned DAP and his discretionary funds.

In responding to retired generals’ suggestions that Aquino refrain from using savings to push patronage politics, the President asked the generals to trust him and that he has instituted reforms that ensure transparent and prudent spending with the pork allocations.

And yet, how can the generals or the people trust someone who forks out billions of pork barrel funds to favored legislators to influence congressional decisions, or who disburses government savings without the benefit of congressional appropriation, or who gives out more than P700 million in PDAF funds to the wife of his budget secretary who as a congresswoman represents the tiny province of Batanes that has less population than some barangays in Manila?

How can he say he was prudent with the people’s money when he has already disbursed more than P7 billion of his calamity fund and more than P300 billion of his contingency fund and the year still has more than two months to go and more calamities and contingencies to face? Is it prudence to give away more than P10 billion in pork barrel funds without seeing where the funds went? And then continue to justify the continued allocation of these funds?

The Supreme Court should immediately rule on several petitions filed by various groups to declare the DAP illegal before Aquino makes good his plan to realign savings to his special purpose funds. The high court should also start deliberations on the petition against PDAF to avert any plan to use these funds for political purposes.

The pork barrel system should be abolished once and for all, and a Supreme Court ruling against the PDAF and the DAP would go a long way in eliminating that biggest source of corruption and political patronage in the country. The tribunal should act before the people’s anger and the generals’ displeasure lead again to EDSA.

(valabelgas@aol.com)