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CONGRESS
leaders voiced concern that Malacañang may be “up to
something” as they asked the Palace to explain why the
P1.127-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2008 has
not been signed into law by President Arroyo, resulting
in continued reliance on the reenacted 2007 national
budget to finance government operations.
Expressing the lawmakers’ disappointment, Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. pointed out that
it has been more than a month since the Senate and the
House of Representatives approved the final version of
the bill on January 28. He found it “unconscionable”
that final approval of the appropriations measure was
being unduly delayed despite the fact that the Senate
exerted extra efforts to pass the bill before the
Christmas break last year after it was approved by the
House of Representatives.
He said
the Palace should have acted with dispatch in expediting
final approval and implementation of the 2008 budget to
foreclose the need for a reenacted budget of the
previous year, which carries with it a lot of
disadvantages.
“I am
afraid that the delay in the signing of the 2008
national budget is intentional on the part of Malacañang,”
the senator said. “By doing so, they are free to spend
taxpayers’ money at their own discretion and without the
restrictions imposed by the new Appropriations Act,” he
said.
Pimentel
protested that the Arroyo government has been falling
back on a reenacted budget for several consecutive years
now because the approval of the new budget is always
delayed.
“Every
time the approval of the new budget is delayed, it is
the people who ultimately suffer because funds for new
projects like classrooms, farm-to-market roads and
municipal ports cannot be released, resulting in the
delay of the construction of these public-works
projects,” he explained. When the previous year’s budget
is automatically reenacted, the funds for projects that
are already completed are reallocated and treated as
savings.
According to Pimentel, these supposed savings can be
easily realigned, without any constraints, by the
President to projects that advance her partisan
political interest or those that catch her fancy.
“My
suspicion is that Malacañang is taking advantage of the
situation so that they can use the reenacted funds for
purposes that will suit their political agenda. They
know that it would be difficult to juggle funds once the
2008 national budget takes effect,” he said.
“Public
funds should be spent only for new projects and specific
purposes for which they were allocated.”
At the
same time, Pimentel voiced concern that the President
should not veto certain provisions inserted by Congress
in the unsigned budget bill that were designed to
strengthen safeguards against misuse of funds or
unauthorized realignment of funds. |
