Questionable appropriations

Editorial

IS the Aquino administration taking the daang matuwid, or straight path, with its proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013?

For civil society, that’s a valid question. And they want a clear answer.

Social Watch Philippines and Alternative Budget Initiative, composed of more than 100 civil-society organizations, are monitoring the national budget.

They don’t like what they see.

Social Watch lead convener Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones, a former national treasurer, said the 2013 national budget under discussion in the Senate and the House of Representatives includes P317.5 billion in special purpose funds (SPFs) and P117.5 billion in unprogrammed funds vulnerable to “distortion.”

Among the biggest items are Budgetary Support to Government Corporations, with P70.8 billion; Allocation to Local Government Units, with P17.5 billion, Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund, with P70 billion, Retirement Benefits Fund, with P70 billion; and Priority Social and Economic Projects Fund, with P22.4 billion.

According to Briones, SPFs are lump sums that are not as detailed and specific as the budget proposals of regular agencies and, therefore, “have always been problematic because they are vulnerable to abuse, documentation is difficult, and accountability is hard to establish.”

Precisely for these reasons, the Commission on Audit (COA) had advised the House to abolish SPFs years ago.

But Congress appears to have totally ignored the COA’s “advise.”

The two civil-society groups had earlier called the attention of Malacañang to the questionable insertion of P282.4 billion in hidden and vague budget allocations for bonuses, dole and other activities that do not create employment.

They are right: The government must disclose the “nitty-gritty” of the budget for the sake of transparency.

The government must account for every centavo appropriated from taxpayers’ money.

Two party-list groups had earlier described the 2013 appropriations proposal as an “election budget” as it included an allocation of P60.4 billion to hire 164,230 new state workers. The mass hiring will take place in 2013, an election year.

The P2.006-trillion budget proposed for 2013 is a big pile of money from the people’s taxes. It is 10.5 percent higher than the 2012 budget and more than 20 percent higher than that for 2011. With an ever-increasing budget, more so should the citizenry monitor how their hard-earned money will be spent.

Transparency and the daang matuwid should go together. There’s no reason for the Aquino administration to keep the people in the dark as to where public funds go, especially since it has, time and again, said it is committed to pursue the straight path.