Zilch
A slang word for zero. Nada. Nil. This on-line column does commentaries on politics in general - that is, politics here and elsewhere, as it attempts to foretell the impacts they may cause to the everyday life of the Filipino nation. In doing so, the column does not only want to be informative, but maybe more so, to be entertaining and amusing to its readers
Invoking power of the purse, Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman (1st Dist., Albay) questioned the presentation made by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad during the initial presentation by the Aquino Administration its 2011 Budget amounting to Php1.645 Trillion before the House Committee on Appropriations. Around 45% of the National Expenditure Program was not included in the presentation covering automatic appropriations such as the debt service and the internal revenue allotment, continuing appropriations such as salaries, and all other kinds of appropriations such as net lending and tax refunds.
Dubbed as the ‘reform budget,’ that will “lift the nation from poverty through honest and effective governance." Abad further stated “we have redesigned the budget to ensure that every centavo will be put to good use," anchored on the four principles of transparency and accountability, bias in allocating resources for the poor, fiscal responsibility to reduce debt, public-private partnerships to spur growth and zero-based budgeting to prioritize activities with impact.
Abad elaborated that the budget represents 18.2% of gross domestic product (GDP), which is a “prudent level consistent with the governance principles.”?? Abad said a conservative 5% GDP growth rate is assumed even as government targets 7 to 8% growth.??Abad said the budget deficit is expected to be reduced by 10.8% to P290 billion, or 3.2% of GDP as against 3.9% in 2010.??"It would seem that we are reducing the size of the government. But what we are doing is to make government more relevant and responsive to the people," Abad said.
Upon query by the minority, Abad justified that they intentionally excluded the P711.5-billion automatically appropriated items from the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress because it is already provided in the law and in order to restrain the lawmakers from meddling from the automatically appropriated budget.?? Such measure, according to Abad, will prevent the previous incident in 2010 budget wherein members of the Lower House reduced the interest rate assumption to save 64.6 billion for interest payments. The 64.6 billion was eventually transferred to the general appropriations for the so-called Congressional Initiatives.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman countered that Abad could not use these as excuses because laws also state that the President should present the government expenditures and sources of funding, and not partial expenditures to the Congress.?? “Congress has the power to make this scrutiny [on automatic appropriation]. We should know this so that ?the Congress would know the ceiling by which the budget can be amended, reviewed or abandoned,” ?Lagman pointed out, adding that laws do not deprive the Congress of its power to check if the automatic appropriation is more or less than it should be.
Aquino submitted his budget message to Congress last 24 August 2010 (hyperlink to www.gov.ph/2010/08/24/president-aquinos-2011-budget-message) where education, public health, social protection, housing and land distribution for the poor, spending on the social services sector receives a significant share of P560.8 billion or 34.1 percent of the proposed budget. Under the proposed budget, Congress will get P7.7 billion; Office of the President — P4.1 billion; Office of the Vice President — P179.805 million; Department of Agrarian Reform — P16.7 billion; Department of Agriculture — P37.6 billion; DBM — P780.880 million; Department of Education — P206.2 billion; State Universities and Colleges — P23.4 billion; Department of Energy — P1.3 billion; Department of Environment and Natural Resources — P13 billion; Department of Finance — P12.2 billion; Department of Foreign Affairs — P11.1 billion; Department of Health — P33.3 billion; Department of Interior and Local Government — P88.1 billion; Department of Justice — P7.6 billion; Department of Labor and Employment — P6.4 billion; Department of National Defense — P104.6 billion; Philippine Veterans Affairs Office - P13.8 billion; Armed Forces of the Philippines — P89.8 billion; Department of Public Works and Highways — P110.6 billion; Department of Science and Technology — P6 billion.
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