Senate approves P1.6-trillion 2011 budget

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate approved last night the P1.645-trillion national budget for next year with minimal changes in the version passed by the House of Representatives.

Senate committee on finance chairman Franklin Drilon said the P21-billion budget for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was left intact amid efforts of some senators to cut down the outlay.

The appropriation for the CCT program was the subject of intense debate in the Senate as lawmakers took the session on Tuesday in trying to reduce the DSWD budget.

Among them was Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who questioned the budget for the CCT program.

Santiago expressed doubts over the Aquino administration’s capacity to successfully implement a P21-billion program.

“With a new administration with no demonstrated ability to implement such a massive social protection program, a 50 percent increase in the CCT program from P10 billion to P15 billion is generous enough,” Santiago said.

Drilon, however, defended the CCT budget by citing the safeguards in place to ensure the funds are utilized with utmost transparency and efficiency.

An inter-agency body composed of the DSWD, the Department of Health and the Department of Education would be established to oversee the implementation of the CCT program, he said.

Drilon said the appropriation for state colleges and universities (SUCs) was also retained and even increased so that “at the very least the MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenditures) of the SUCs will be maintained for next year.”

“They will not suffer any cuts. Let me emphasize that those items in the SUC budget which were inserted and vetoed by (former) President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo cannot be brought back,” Drilon said.

“So the President’s budget for the SUCs for 2011 will be augmented so that we will make certain that there will be no cuts in the MOOE for 2011,” he added.

The SUC’s budget would also include the amounts needed to increase the salaries of the teachers and other employees pursuant to the Salary Standardization Law, Drilon said.

Drilon added the Senate has agreed to reduce the P880- million family planning budget of Department of Health (DOH).

Drilon though declined to reveal the actual amount and the items that would be affected by the reduction, saying the amendments are still being finalized.

‘Stagnation budget’

The approval of the 2011 national budget came after the senators held a caucus during yesterday’s session where they agreed the amendments would be discussed during the meeting.

Drilon said the amendments would be read into the record this Friday, a process which allowed the Senate to pass the measure on second and third reading yesterday.

A total of 12 senators voted in favor of the bill while Senators Joker Arroyo and Alan Peter Cayetano voted against.

Arroyo said the 2011 budget under the Aquino administration was a “stagnation budget.”

“It (2011 budget) is billed as a reform budget. Perhaps it is. But after the debate and deliberations, what surfaced is a stagnation budget. It is bereft of the tools for growth. It is a prescription for stagnancy, an anti-growth budget,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo said the appropriations for public works and highways have been considerably reduced.

The reduction means less funds for much-needed roads or infrastructure to jump-start development in the country, he said.

Arroyo said the administration should not depend heavily on its Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) to finance infrastructure projects.

“What if the private investors do not invest, new infrastructure building will be at a standstill. The government has put all its eggs in the private sector. It has no fallback position,” he said.

Arroyo also lashed out at what he described as “lopsided allocation of scarce funds” for the DSWD.

He said there is an “over-concentration” of the budget for the DSWD.

“Out of the P21 billion allotted for Conditional Cash Transfer Program, P4 billion or 19 percent will be spent for the gargantuan administration cost to distribute the P17 billion cash transfer to beneficiaries,” Arroyo said.

The CCT budget is itemized as: training cost P1.6 billion, salaries and allowances P716 million, advocacy materials, manuals and booklets P648 million, monitoring expenses P676 million, capital outlay of P217 million.

The administration cost is more than the budgets of Department of Tourism (P1.5 billion) or the Department of Trade and Industry (P2.5 billion), the line departments that are vehicles of growth and development, Arroyo said. – With Christina Mendez, Aurea Calica

“The administration says it will not impose new taxes. Fine. But where will they get the monies to fund its programs. (By) borrowing… the refuge of every administration,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo said he would re-insert a general provision that the total indebtedness of the national government and any of its agencies… which carry the sovereign guarantee of the Republic of the Philippines shall not exceed 55 percent of the latest GDP… unless it obtains the prior consent of Congress.

“I inserted that provision in the 2010 budget but (former) President Arroyo unceremoniously vetoed it. I hope President Noynoy (Aquino) would not do the same,” Arroyo said. “That is good for the country’s fiscal discipline.”

Cayetano, for his part, said next year’s budget was the same budget allocation during the Arroyo administration.

He said most of the programs of the Arroyo administration were retained in the approval of the 2011 budget.

Malacañang earlier appealed to the Senate to retain the CCT funds even as some senators led by Santiago were against the proposal.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the budget prepared by the DSWD was reviewed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to make sure that there would be appropriate funding necessary to carry out the program.

Valte added there was no reason to doubt the integrity of Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman in handling such huge amount of funds.

“We have seen that Secretary Soliman is capable and we can see her drive to implement this properly and we trust in her capabilities to fully implement this and reach out to those who are really in need,” Valte said.

Valte also assured the CCT funds would be strictly monitored. –-Marvin Sy (The Philippine Star) with Christina Mendez, Aurea Calica