Aquino gov’t gives zero budget to anti-smuggling, anti-graft bodies

MANILA, Philippines — The Aquino administration has effectively decommissioned the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission after it gave the two agencies a zero budget under the proposed 2011 budget.

Malacañang’s strategic communications secretary Ricky Carandang told reporters Tuesday that the PASG and the PAGC—two high-level agencies that have been criticized for alleged redundancy—received no allocation from the executive branch.

PASG has been hit for having overlapping functions with the Bureau of Customs while the PAGC is criticized for doing the work of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Carandang added that the budgets of the under-performing government-owned and controlled corporations have also been cut under the 2011 National Expenditure Program.

Executives of some GOCC’s have been under fire in the Senate for receiving fat compensation packages and bonuses despite losing millions of pesos in their operations. –Norman Bordadora, Philippine Daily Inquirer