Lawmakers will continue to get funding for their “pet projects” in their districts during the Duterte administration.
But this allocation is in no way a revival of the infamous pork- barrel scheme, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.
Diokno added that the new administration will be collating the requests for funding for pet projects of congressmen throughout the country, although he assured this
will not go against the Supreme Court’s decision against pork-barrel funds. Diokno said the requests for funding will be coursed through the office of Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez of Davao del Norte, who is poised to be elected as the new Speaker of the House in the 17th Congress.
Alvarez would then turn over the requests to the Department of Budget and Management, which is undertaking a review of the budget proposal to be presented to Congress by the Duterte administration for deliberations starting August 15.
“But these proposals are not automatic. They would have to be in line with the development agenda; so schoolbuildings are okay. But if you request for a basketball court, then that’s not going to be approved,” Diokno told the BusinessMirror and GMA7 television network in an interview.
Diokno said this practice of identifying projects for funding does not go against the Supreme Court’s decision in 2014, which declared as unconstitutional the inclusion of pork-barrel funds in the national budget.
He explained that factoring into the national budget the requests for funding of congressmen is not a post-enactment intervention by the individual members of Congress in the spending process of the government.
“I think that the congressmen are more competent in knowing which projects are needed in their areas,” Diokno said.
Ideally, Congress exercises its power of the purse by scrutinizing the budget proposal of the Executive branch during the budget deliberations. Funding for the pet projects of congressmen may not necessarily increase the national budget proposal, which for 2017, will amount to some P3.3 trillion.
Diokno said what the Supreme Court prohibited was the practice of the previous administrations of appropriating a lump sum, from which representatives and senators are able to draw funds for their pet projects during the current fiscal year, even though those projects were not previously identified during the budget-creation process.
The budget deficit will probably reach 2.5 percent of GDP this year and 3 percent in 2017, mainly
because of revenue shortfalls, Diokno said. The government will continue to meet 80 percent of its borrowing needs from the domestic market and fund 20 percent abroad, he added.
Next year’s growth target was lowered marginally to 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent from 6.6 percent to 7.6 percent set by the previous administration. Growth is set to range between 7 percent and 8 percent from 2018 to 2022, Diokno said.
The currency will probably remain stable and competitive, with officials keeping the peso forecast at 45 to 48 per dollar in its economic projections through 2022, central bank Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said at the briefing.
(With Bloomberg News)
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