‘Magna Carta for Poor is Mission Impossible’

MANILA, Philippines – “Mission Impossible.”

This was how President Aquino described the proposed Magna Carta for the Poor that he vetoed, as the government had no means to allocate around P3.3 trillion from the P2-trillion annual national budget to uplift the lives of the poor.

In an interview yesterday when he visited ports, bus terminals and airports in anticipation of the Holy Week rush, the Chief Executive justified that he cannot give false hope to 95 million Filipinos, especially since the government is cash-strapped.

“Let’s be merciful to government officials or employees who will be given this mission impossible and end up facing charges for failing to do the impossible. This is why I was forced to veto this law,” Aquino explained. The P3.3-trillion estimate that Budget Secretary Florencio Abad gave the President does not even include the 10 percent administrative fees that will be needed for processing. “The P3.3 trillion also has a 10 percent administrative fee – the people who will process their applications for housing, supervision on the construction of houses, those who will distribute the food, etcetera,” Aquino said.

In all, it will be P3.3 trillion plus roughly about P300 billion “just to administer” the rights of the impoverished Filipinos, and in order for the program to be fully implemented.

The other day, Aquino disclosed that the government has to spend around P600 billion for mass housing alone for the 26 percent of Filipinos who are living below the poverty line out of the 95 million total population.

This means the government has to provide roughly five million social housing units to the poor.

Aquino added that this excludes the right of the poor to stable food supply, employment, health services and quality education.

Budget allocation is also a problem for funding agencies like the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which under the proposed measure was supposed to give 55 percent of all its earnings from lottery operations.

“PCSO objected to this provision. They countered that 55 percent of what they take in, they pay out as prizes. So how can they give 50 percent towards this fund?” Aquino asked.

The same is true with the Department of Agrarian Reform, whose revenues are normally derived from sequestered properties but is also supposed to give out its proceeds for the poorest of the poor.

As to the suggestion of Alagad party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta that specific provisions could have been vetoed but not the whole law, Aquino explained that such cases are only allowed if it is a revenue measure, an appropriation, or one that involves tariff.

“Under the 1987 Constitution, which Congressman Marcoleta should have known, since he is now on his third term in Congress, bills that can only be vetoed by line item are those from appropriation, revenue or tariff bill,” Aquino pointed out.

“But it doesn’t fall in any of the three so we cannot line item veto.”

Substitute bill

Meanwhile, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday lawmakers would pursue in the 16th Congress the passage of a substitute bill for the Magna Carta of the Poor.

“We’ll try to push for it in the first few months,” Belmonte said.

Earlier, leaders of the House of Representatives said there was no time to pass a new version of the measure in the 15th Congress, which adjourns sine die on June.

House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said the President could include the substitute bill in the list of priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

On one hand, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said yesterday Filipinos cannot expect any real anti-poverty measure under the Aquino administration after the President vetoed the Magna Carta for the Poor.

“There can be no real pro-poor measure under the Aquino government,” Mariano said in a statement. “Aquino vetoed the Magna Carta of the Poor because he wants to focus the so-called anti-poverty fund to the administration’s flagship program, the conditional cash transfer scheme.”

“These are inherent, constitutionally guaranteed rights of all people. It is the obligation of the state to ensure that all Filipinos enjoy these rights at all times,” the lawmaker added.

He also said the Magna Carta “is in fact a cosmetic measure that justifies poverty” because “the measure conveniently sugarcoats the government’s inefficiency in providing a decent, quality life for the people.”

He pointed out that the measure only seeks to “protect the rights” of the poor and not to resolve and eradicate widespread poverty.

Based on the poverty threshold set by the National Economic and Development Authority, about one in every four Filipinos or 25.1 percent is considered poor, he added.

Budget allocation

Senators Serge Osmeña and Francis Escudero supported the President’s decision to veto the law, saying the government does not have enough budget for the measure.

“It is a much bigger sin if we let our countrymen have high hopes on the measure, yet the government fails them,” Escudero said.

Escudero also noted that under Presidential Decree 1177, the President has powers over the budget to decide which items to fund and the only items that are automatically appropriated are debt servicing and the Internal Revenue Allotment under the Local Government Code and the budget for constitutional commissions.

Escudero also said there should be close coordination between the executive and the legislative branches of government in crafting relevant laws since about P500-billion worth of laws remain dormant due to lack of government funding.

The solution to this perennial problem, he said, would be the earmarking of funds on laws coming out of the legislative mill.

Osmeña, meanwhile, noted that there is an unwritten rule in Congress that lawmakers should not pass a spending bill without a certification of availability of funds from the Department of Budget and Management.

“But Congress keeps at it. The favorite whipping boys are the Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office,” Osmeña said. –-Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) with Christina Mendez