House to fight for restoration of contraceptives fund

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will fight for the restoration of the P880-million fund for the purchase of contraceptives in the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2010, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

He said the House would insist on the fund in the bicameral conference on the budget, which begins at 10 a.m. today at the Philippine Coconut Authority building in Quezon City.

“We will talk to our members (in the conference committee) to restore it. Even though it won’t reach P880 million, it will be substantial,” he said.

He said the decision of the Senate to reduce the fund to P8 million meant that senators wanted “to eliminate the item altogether.”

The fund, intended for “family health, including family planning,” is part of the P32-billion budget of the Department of Health.

The House named its budget conferees last night in preparation for today’s bicameral meeting to reconcile the versions of the budget of the two chambers.

The conferees are led by Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, appropriations committee chairman. They will meet with their Senate counterparts led by Sen. Franklin Drilon.

The Senate’s contingent also includes Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Majority leader Vicente Sotto III, minority leader Alan Cayetano, and Senators Edgardo Angara and Ralph Recto.

Belmonte said Abaya has informed him that “there are no big differences (in the two versions).”

“So within two or three days, I think they will be able to come out with a report that hopefully will be acceptable to both the House and the Senate,” he said.

In the past, bicameral conferences on the budget were characterized by haggling on so-called “congressional initiatives,” the euphemism for fund insertions made by lawmakers in the proposed outlay.

The insertions were usually sourced from interest payments on the country’s loans, which were included in the budget proposals Malacañang submitted to Congress.

Last year, the Senate-House conference committee on the budget diverted P65 billion in interest payments programmed for this year to the congressional pork barrel.

Of that amount, then President Arroyo released P16.5 billion to her congressional allies before the synchronized elections last May 10.

According to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, those releases would further bloat the 2010 budget deficit.

Abaya has told reporters that the “old playground for congressional initiatives is no longer there” since President Aquino has not included interest payments in his budget proposal.

Under a Marcos-era decree, the President is authorized to automatically appropriate debt payments. He does not have to submit them to Congress for approval.

Senate’s message

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that he and his colleagues’ decision to slash the P880 million by a staggering P872 million was mean to deliver a message that they were not tacitly favoring the RH bill.

“We cut it not just because DOH could not justify that proposed allocation. If we approve those provisions in their proposed budget, it will be a tacit admission on our part that we are in favor of the RH bill,” Enrile said.

“He can insist on it in the bicam if he wants that,” said Enrile, referring to Rep. Edcel Lagman’s statement that he would move to restore the P872-million in the bicameral conference committee.

The bulk of the slashed amount was re-aligned to scholarships, the senators said.

Sotto earlier said the Senate decided to cut the national family planning budget because it was against the Constitutionally-protected right to life.

“On recommendation of Tito (Sotto), we all agreed on P8 million for the acquisition of condoms. It was rechanneled, realigned to science scholarships,” Angara said.

“Tinira ang condom (condom was retained) because that’s not objectionable in his (Sotto’s) point of view. Yung ibang (The other) contraceptives will already destroy a fetus,” he added. –Jess Diaz and Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star)