MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo disclosed she has signed the national budget for 2010, equivalent to $30 billion, with a “conditional veto†of congressional insertions that tended to increase the “pork barrel†allocations of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The President herself told Malacanang reporters she signed on Monday the budget which she described as her administration’s commitment to reform and responsible development as well as fiscal discipline.
In her message on its signing, as released by Malacanang, she said the budget represents “the end of years of hard work and fiscal reforms†and also the “beginning from which the next president can build on the accomplishments of this administration.â€
Malacanang said the signing is the President’s last official act on the national budget as she is to relinquish power on June 30 to her successor who is to be elected in the May 10 elections.
Earlier, the opposition and other concerned sectors expressed fear that the budget contains huge congressional insertions aimed at increasing the pork allocations of lawmakers, especially those running for reelection or other elective positions in the May 10 polls.
The insertions came from the reduction of more than $1 billion which the legislators made from the annual budgetary allocation for the country’s foreign debt obligations as mandated by law.
However, Secretary Rolando Andaya of the Department of Budget and Management said the President made a conditional veto, explaining the projects to be financed out of the diversion would be funded based on availability of revenues.
Andaya also explained that if the President had made an “absolute veto,†the projects would have been effectively deleted from the national budget, together with the funds allotted to them.
He also pointed out that, if implemented, the increased pork allocations would increase the burgeoning budget deficit as he stressed: “This fear of surging deficit is the reason why allocations will only be released if Congress can identify new revenue measures that can support such spending.â€
Andaya assured that any spending in the election season would be undertaken with utmost prudence and caution.
Under the new budget, each member of the House of Representatives is entitled to a pork allocation of more than $1 million to fund their pet projects in their congressional districts like farm-to-market roads and new schoolbuildings.
Because they are elected nationally, each senator gets more than $2 million to fund infrastructure projects anywhere in the country.
However, reliable sources, who requested anonymity, pointed out the members of the bicameral conference committee of the House and the Senate who resolved their conflicting versions of the budget managed to increase their pork allocations by reducing the outlay for foreign debt servicing.
The increase was inserted and hidden in the budgets of government agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Education and Department of Health to boost the chances of winning of those running in the coming polls, the sources added.
But with President Arroyo’s conditional veto, the sources pointed out there is no way such insertions could be funded since the government is short on tax collections and has resorted to borrowing because of the ongoing global economic and financial crunch.
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