Aquino asserts power over purse, vetoes budget limits

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III on Monday signed the P1.645-trillion budget after vetoing 16 items, including a debt cap and the limits on how he could spend the savings from a P21-billion dole, saying those infringed on Executive powers.

“It is enshrined in no less than the Constitution that the power to augment any item in the appropriations of the Executive Branch is exclusive to the President,” Mr. Aquino said in a prepared statement.

Among the provisions he vetoed were those that:

• Limit national government borrowing to 55 percent of the gross domestic product, and require congressional approval for any borrowing above the ceiling. Mr. Aquino said his six-month-old government should be given the flexibility to borrow whenever it needed to.

• Require Malacañang to consult with Congress in the release of lump-sum appropriations. “I wish to emphasize that … the Executive branch is primarily responsible and accountable for the enforcement of this [General Appropriations] Act,” Mr. Aquino said.

• Require the Agriculture Department to consult with mayors and congressmen on the location and implementation of multi-billion-peso farm-to-market road projects.

• Require the government to use the savings from the P21.9 billion conditional cash transfer program or government dole to the poor for basic education, maternal health care, and immunization. Mr. Aquino said the President had the exclusive power to augment any item in the appropriations of the Executive branch, including the savings from the dole program.

• Require the use of unprogrammed funds for the payment of administrative disability pensions of World War II veterans. Mr. Aqujino said that since the release of the pension would be a recurring government expense, a new funding source should be identified.

• Provide for hazard duty pay for agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

• Grant benefits to employees who were separated from government service as a result of the reorganization of the National Power Corp. Mr. Aquino said the retirement or separation benefits should have been included in the budget submitted by the power company and not appropriated by Congress.

• Require the conditional cash transfer program to give priority to municipalities or villages where the insurgents are active. Mr. Aquino said the dole program was not intended to be an anti-insurgency program.

• Give priority to graduates of public elementary schools for scholarship grants in private secondary schools instead of making the grant exclusive to them. Mr. Aquino said the scholarship grants should be exclusive to graduates of public elementary schools to ensure that public high schools were decongested.

• Authorize deductions of payables due to banks, non-bank financial institutions, and financing companies from the salaries of government employees. Mr. Aquino said the provision was a clear infringement on the rights of state workers under the Administrative Code of 1987.

• Provide budgetary support for the training program of the Development Academy of the Philippines.

• Include the Partido Development Administration in the list of priority programs and projects that will be funded by pork barrel. Mr. Aquino said the PDA was not a program or a project, but an entity composed of member-municipalities aimed at accelerating the development of lagging regions.

President Aquino also placed more than 20 special provisions under conditional implementation, such as the retention of the income of the Food and Drug Administration, subject to the submission of a five-year program; reconstruction of school buildings destroyed by calamities pending the issuance of guidelines by the Budget and Education Departments; and the release of the pork barrel pending the guidelines from the Department of Budget and Management for priority projects.

Mr. Aquino signed the budget before lawmakers led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Senate finance committee chairman Franklin Drilon, and House appropriations committee chairman Joseph Emilio Abaya.

The President noted that this was the first time in 11 years that the budget was being enacted in the same year that it was submitted to Congress. The President thanked the lawmakers for retaining funds for the conditional cash transfer program.

“We now have the means to fulfill our people’s aspirations for a government that pursues national development along transparent, accountable lines, and with maximum efficiency,” Mr. Aquino said after signing the budget.

“This budget demonstrates our commitment to solving the problems of our people at the soonest time. This alleviates the burdens especially of the most disadvantaged.”

Drilon said he supported the President’s veto of the 16 provisions, adding they violated the Constitution by limiting the President’s power to realign items in the budget.

The House on Monday said it would not override the presidential veto, but opposition lawmakers complained that the removal of the “protection clauses” turned the budget into the President’s personal pork barrel and usurped Congress’ exclusive power over the purse.

House Minority Leader Edcel Laman lamented the loss of oversight provisions in the budget.

“For the first time in Philippine legislative history after martial law, Malacañang has effectively transformed the Congress into a colossal subservient and faithful photocopying machine,” Lagman said, noting there were hardly any differences from the plan the President submitted and the final bill that Congress passed.

House Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez added that the President must now deliver on his promises.

“The President got what he wanted—the budget as proposed by the Palace, without cuts, without amendments. It was as if it did not pass Congress’ scrutiny at all,” Suarez said.

“Congress gave the budget to him untouched, so he has no reason not to pursue good governance.’’ –Joyce Pangco Pañares with Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today