Akbayan wins P4b gravy from Public Works fund

AKBAYAN, a party-list group allied with President Benigno Aquino III, was granted a P4.05-billion fund for its marginalized constituents in agrarian reform communities Thursday, lawmakers said.

The fund will come from the Public Works Department’s P110.6-billion budget and will be covered by an “erratum” in the department’s spending plan, said Cavite Rep. Jose Emilio Abaya, chairman of the House committee on appropriations.

Akbayan Rep. Kaka Bag-ao had lobbied for the fund, saying it could be taken from the department’s program for agricultural communities.

The P4.05 billion would be used to provide support services to agrarian reform beneficiaries, agricultural credit, and initial capitalization for new beneficiaries, she said.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson agreed and signed a letter from Abaya that Bag-ao had brought to him an hour before the appropriations committee concluded its review of his budget.

Hours before Singson signed the letter, Bag-ao and Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy were seen around the session hall gathering signatures supporting the P21.9-billion budget allocation for Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman’s conditional cash transfer program, the government dole to the poorest of the poor.

Bag-ao and co-authors Herrera-Dy and Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello filed House Resolution 529 urging the House committee on rules to create a special oversight committee that would oversee how the P21.9-billion fund would be used.

The resolution, signed by 100 lawmakers, ran counter to another document signed by 52 congressmen, led by Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, denouncing the cash transfer program as a dole to promote political patronage and mendicancy. Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo was among those who opposed the program.

Some 19 lawmakers, including San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, and Surigao del Sur Rep. Philip Pichay signed both pro- and anti-cash transfer resolutions.

Those who supported the program said it was “a valuable and effective tool to reach the poorest of the poor provided that it is properly enforced.”

Bag-ao said Akbayan would not let “the unholy alliance” that opposed the program “stand in the way of this government’s services and programs for the poorest population.”

Bello, who earlier described the P21.9-billion program as a a dole, on Thursday said it would be all right with an oversight committee in place.

Akbayan said it would consult with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on how best to earmark the P4.05 billion for its agrarian reform projects.

Abaya said the committee and the Budget Department would propose to introduce a provision to reflect an erratum in the Public Works budget to provide for the fund.

“This allocation should not be realigned for other purposes,” Abaya said in a letter that was signed and noted by Singson.

“The introduction of the erratum is in compliance with Republic Act 9700.” –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today